Well, I sat down to write something about books, but then I noticed a line break problem on my last post and spent 20 minutes trying to fix it. Notice the word “trying”. I refuse to sacrifice any more of my life to the evil computer gods.

So now I have no idea what I sat down to write about. Instead, I will give you this weather station webcam shot of the delightful puffy clouds we are experiencing today in Paris.

Unfortunately, I can’t get my hands on a copy of this book. (?!?) For now, I’ll just have to make do with this article that I found in the LA Times. If the article is any indication, it promises to be a very interesting read.

In April of 1819, right around the time that he began to suffer the first symptoms of tuberculosis — the disease that had already killed his mother and his beloved brother, Tom — the poet John Keats sat down and wrote, in a letter to his brother, George, the following question: “Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul?”

…We need sorrow, constant and robust, to make us human, alive, sensitive to the sweet rhythms of growth and decay, death and life.

There was a magnificent exhibit in Paris a couple of years ago on the theme of melancholy with around 250 works (mostly paintings). Here’s a very good article about it with some excellent historical background.

If you live in Paris, or are just visiting, you have to go to this bookstore and buy a book!

Berkeley Books of Paris
8, rue Casimir Delavigne
75006 Paris FRANCE
(Odéon métro stop)
Telephone / Fax : 01.46.34.85.73

The shop is only a few months old, but they have tons of wonderful books, a fantastic selection of authors and titles and really good prices. (If you’ve bought books in English in Paris, you know how insanely expensive they can be.)

I was just there again yesterday. “Perhaps I’ll buy a book” I told myself (feigning innocence) as I lunged in the door. An hour later, I emerged, stumbling under the weight of my bulging backpack. Ah, many happy hours of reading await…

Definitely my favorite bookstore in Paris!