“It has to start somewhere, this business of being an intellectual. Chances are, it doesn’t start well”: Timothy Aubry writes about gateway books.
Mine: Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Other Inquisitions; Albert Camus, The Plague; Franz Kafka, Selected Short Stories; Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea (yes, really). All of them independent reading in high school. I had access to a good bookstore. But I have no idea how I found my way to these writers.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Gateway books
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comments: 4
I still don't read as much "titles that I recognize" as I should. Anyhow, trusting my impulses, I telephoned for a print subscription. (I'm not used to digital) So thank you for linking. I think you have done so before, but this was the first time I felt moved to subscribe. Maybe because I'm richer these days, but I don't think so.
The only one of those I read in high school was The Plague, and it was in English class. (Also, The Stranger.) That elective on Existentialism had a big effect on me in general.
DN3, I greet you as a sister existentialist! I continued in college with Irrational Man and a course on Camus (in the theology department, taught by a Jesuit).
Oops -- I missed your earlier comment, Anon. I hope you find some worthwhile reading there.
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