Walkies with Proust
I’m going to do some more walking, in an attempt to shift the seven kilos I larded on straight after I had the Zoladex implant, and to regain some of my energy after the trials of the past few months.
I’ve never read the Stieg Larsson trilogy, but I listened to it all the way through on audiobooks as I walked Milo in the mornings a few years back.
So I was wondering what I could listen to now; something long and immersive to carry me through the many, many steps my spiffy new iPhone will be counting for me. Everyone says 10,000 steps a day, but that’s one size fits all, a figure plucked out of the air, applying to everyone and no one.
It hit me this morning. In between my usual reading diet of Lee Child, Robert Paterson and Dan Brown, I find I enjoy the odd longer book — Les Misérables (only the Christine Donougher translation will do); War and Peace; Remembrance of Things Past — that’s it! A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. In French, of course. I’d never have the ability or patience to read it in the original language, but why not let it flow through my ears as I trudge along the Parkland Walk shouting at Milo?
Much of it would be incomprehensible to me, but it’s never a hardship to listen to French being spoken, and having read the Scott Moncrieff translation I should be able to get the gist of it.
So I reasoned there must be an audiobook, and there is. What’s more, it’s FREE! All 145 hours of it. Here’s a link for you to download it. Actually, it is a little intimidating as I’m not going to be walking by myself all the time and it’s rude to listen to an audiobook while walking with Von. At least I think it is. And where does one find a spare 145 hours?
This is going to take me a while to get through. I might have to take a break or two with something lighter, but I know I will get through it in the end. I always do. And I myself will be lighter too, I hope.
I’m rather looking forward to it.
