Julius Wiedemann Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition
By Julius Wiedemann November 27, 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 Julius Wiedemann sent in response to the Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition:
1. Of these, your reading preference: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama:
Poetry and then fiction.
2. Your favorite childhood book (or favorite childhood author):
Maybe Obelix?
3. Your favorite book character:
Haruki Murakami in his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
4. Your favorite book title (because you like the sound of it):
Legislators and Interpreters.
5. A book you could never finish:
Hobsbawm’s The Age of Extremes.
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:
A Penguin book I have on philosophy.
8. A book you should have read but haven’t:
All of Freud.
9. The best “book as object” you own (how it looks over what it says):
Diego Rivera, from TASCHEN.
10. Your reading speed: very slow, slow, moderate, fast, very fast:
Slow.
11. While you read, are you a note-taker?
No.
12. Your most idiosyncratic reading habit:
Eating.
13. The most expensive book you’ve ever bought (and, if you can remember, the price):
A limited edition of the work of Mark Ryden for 2,500 EUR.
14. If you could be any author:
Haruki Murakami.
15. If you are what you read, the book that best says who you are:
Paul Krugman (author).
16. Your favorite writer of the gender opposite yours:
Susan Sontag.
17. The last book you bought:
A book on portraits at an exhibition in London.
18. Your favorite place to purchase books:
Museum stores.
19. The book you are currently reading:
The Man Who Wanted to be Happy by Laurent Gounelle.
20. The book you will read next:
Political Philosophy.
21. The current location of the book you will read next:
Close to my bed.
22. Your favorite format for books: paper or pixels:
Both!
23. If you could have written any book:
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
24. A book that was particularly meaningful to, or highly recommended by, an acquaintance of yours:
Lester Thurow’s The Future of Capitalism.
25. If you have the chance to plan it, the last book you’ll read:
Something still to be produced.
View all Questionnaires.
Also see “Celebrating a Proust Anniversary with The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition.”
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