Debbie Millman Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition
By Debbie Millman November 19, 2013
This November marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marcel Proust’s opus, In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu), originally known in English as Remembrance of Things Past. To honor the occasion, we developed the Designers & Books version of the eponymous Proust Questionnaire, which we’ve sent out to various contributors and friends. Rather than including the questions from the original that asked about a wide array of “thoughts and feelings,” our adaptation focuses solely on the respondent’s relationship to books.
View the complete questions asked in The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition
Here are the answers Debbie Millman sent in response to the Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition:
1. Of these, your reading preference: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama:
Short stories.
2. Your favorite childhood book (or favorite childhood author):
My favorite childhood book is the The Little Golden Book of Words, and my favorite childhood author is Catherine Woolley.
3. Your favorite book character:
Cayce Pollard from William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition.
4. Your favorite book title (because you like the sound of it):
To The Lighthouse.
5. A book you could never finish:
Finnegans Wake.
6. A book you will never start:
Gravity’s Rainbow.
7. If for some reason it turned out that you could save one and only one book from among those you own, which would it be:
My signed copy of A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
8. A book you should have read but haven’t:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
9. The best “book as object” you own (how it looks over what it says):
Amateur Bout by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
10. Your reading speed: very slow, slow, moderate, fast, very fast:
Too fast: I’m impatient.
11. While you read, are you a note-taker? If yes, where do you record your notes:
Yes, I take notes and I am embarrassed to admit that I write directly in the books (in pencil…mostly).
12. Your most idiosyncratic reading habit:
Dog-ear-ing.
14. If you could be any author:
Susan Sontag.
15. If you are what you read, the book that best says who you are:
Lucky by Alice Sebold.
17. The last book you bought:
Lysistrata illustrated by Picasso, bought on eBay for $9.99.
18. Your favorite place to purchase books:
Rizzoli Bookstore in New York.
19. The book you are currently reading:
Pretty Pictures by Marian Bantjes.
20. The book you will read next:
The Power of Glamour by Virginia Postrel.
21. The current location of the book you will read next:
On my desk at Sterling Brands.
22. Your favorite format for books: paper or pixels:
Paper. The mustier, the better.
23. If you could have written any book:
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
24. A book that was particularly meaningful to, or highly recommended by, an acquaintance of yours:
Stone Butch Blues: A Novel by Leslie Feinberg.
25. If you have the chance to plan it, the last book you’ll read:
A poem by Charles Olson: “Maximus, To Himself.” It is one of the greatest poems ever written, and the greatest poem I’ve ever read.
Also see “Celebrating a Proust Anniversary with The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition.”
Announcements
Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister
Now is Better
By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023
Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future
By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022
Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.
.png)
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People
By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022
Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Milton Glaser: POP
By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023
This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.
.png)
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022
Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)
By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023
This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.
Popular NowWeekMonth
- The Book We Need Now: New from Stefan Sagmeister
- Quote of the Day: Witold Rybczynski & Paradise Planned
- Summer Reading for Design Lovers: The Story of Architecture
- One Book and Why: Design School Dean Frederick Steiner Recommends . . .
- One Book and Why: Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister Recommends . . .
Recent Articles
