Literary Paris

Since I can't learn French fast enough to be any good while I'm there, I figured that I might as well read books about France. Maybe I can learn something about it and get into a Parisian frame of mind. Books by the French, American expatriots, or others who lived there are all up for grabs. I've recently read:

Debord's The Society of the Spectacle
Camus' The Plague
Kerouac's Satori in Paris
Réage's Story of O
and a bunch of Hemingway and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.

Tentatively on the to-be-read-if-I-have-time pile:

Orwell's Down and Out in Paris
Balzac's Wrong Side of Paris
Baudrillard's The Illusion of the End
Thompson's Carnet de Voyage

Got any recommendations for reading material that should be on this list? Some books that I want to read have already been pushed back, like Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Don't be afraid to make my wishlist unwieldy. If I don't read it before going to France, I'll probably read it afterwards, so fire away!

Categories: books