101 Books, Number 10

Favorite Books Throughout My Life

10: In Search of Lost Time, 1913–27, by Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

Now this is one I can’t forget—

I’ve very nearly reached the end

Of my account of this, the set

Of books on which I do depend.

I don’t know French, and so I had

To read translation—still a feat

(I praise myself? That’s kind of bad!)

That I would like—yes!—to repeat.

It wasn’t all that long ago*

That I decided I should read

These books that are so much aglow

With genius—this is guaranteed.

I read them very slowly, for

I didn’t want to miss a thing.

And so I sailed from comfort’s shore

With Proust, a literary king.

I’ve read no better books than these—

No, these sit on the highest rung

Where blows the very freshest breeze

That bears the music hearts have sung.

*I read them between February 2 and March 29, 2006