Monday 22 September 2014

10 Books to Read Before You Go To Paris

I do love a good book list, and a good Paris book list is always special. This list from Fodors was offered up to me on Facebook recently. As always there's some books I've read, books I've been meaning to read for ages, and books I've never heard of but would now love to read immediately. Sadly I don't think I'll be reading any of these before my next trip to Paris-it's coming up too soon!

1. The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy

Deserves to be read
just for the title really


2. The Sweet Life in Paris - David Lebovitz (see my review)

3. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

4. The Flaneur - Edmund White (see my review)

5. Paris Journal 1956 - 1964 - Janet Flanner (Genet)

6. Paris France - Gertrude Stein

7. Paris to the Moon - Adam Gopnik

I have been meaning to read this
for ever

8. My Life in France - Julia Child

9. Flowers of Evil - Charles Baudelaire

10. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris - A.J. Liebling

Books on France, a great 2014 challenge
 from Emma at 
Words and Peace

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita aAn Accidental Blog

9 comments:

Jeanie said...

Looks like a good list -- some of which I've read and some not! I always love these lists!

Paulita said...

I know nothing about the Dud Avocado. I wonder why it's on the top of the list. I wonder if it's a voting thing. I'm still not crazy about the Gopnik book. I've read so many books about Paris that I like more. Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to follow your trip to Paris.

Esme said...

Thank you for this list. I am going to read the ones I am not familiar with.

HA HA they are gulls-I think with the one pigeon in the foreground I thought they were all pigeons.

vvb32 reads said...

So far, I've read My Life in Paris by Julia Child. I've been meaning to read Hemingway's.

skiourophile said...

I haven't read very many of these, though I recommend the Hemingway and Julia Child. At the moment my 'France' book is Kathe Lison's The Whole Fromage, which I suspect is going to be both fascinating (cheese, cheese, cheese) and annoying (constant stilted Dan Brown-type physical descriptions of people, like "a super-slim brunette" or "petite and a tad plump in a pleasant way". What, no super-slim in an unpleasant way? ;-) I am probably being harsh...

Sally Tharpe Rowles said...

Like all the others I have read some but not others but the Dud Avocado is entirely new to me.

Laura. said...

These look great! I'd love to read them.

www.internetlyaddicted.blogspot.co.uk

Vagabonde said...

I have read 8 of the books on your list, but not the first one with an interesting name. I have read so many books on Paris lately, mostly history books so I could write my series on the liberation of Paris – I learned so much that was never told me in school. Of course books on the history of France or Paris are not the types people like to read if traveling there. I am just finishing “Paris Noir – African Americans in the City of Light” by Tyler Stovall. It’s about the great number of African Americans moving to Paris after WWI because of racism in the US. But here again, it is about history – not the type of books that your readers would enjoy I guess.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Paris to the Moon - yes, I think. I read it long ago and then impulsively reread it. It holds up.

And, of course, A Moveable Feast. Definitely.