“One hour of reading is the sovereign medicine against the disgusts of life.” Montesquieu

I love reading, thus I read a lot. At least, I try to do so. As Victor Hugo said it, “Whoever you are, who want to cultivate, to invigorate, to edify, to move, to appease, put books everywhere.” Indeed, reading brings me knowledge: an historical one when I read a book whose story happens in an other era, or when I read properly historical books or essays; a linguistic knowledge since, reading, I learn new words, I improve my own writing; a personal and psychological knowledge since reading helps me to know myself. In a nutshell, reading improves a lot my culture. Besides, reading helps me to disconnect myself from daily life, to relax: “I made some delicious trips, embarked on a word…” said Balzac.

I do not have a unique taste in terms of reading. But generally I love reading books with an historical, psychological, cultural focus, I also enjoy travels book.

At present, I am reading a novel of Herman Hesse, a German writer: “The Glass Bead Game”. It is quite complicated for me to summarize it because I have just started it. But, briefly, it is the story of very elitist, intellectual and artistic schools in Germany in the XIX century, and more especially of a boy, then a young man, studying in one of them, and hesitating between the prestige of such schools and the apparent freedom of the outside.

The book I most remember, which had a notable impact on me is “A confederacy of dunces”, of John Kennedy Tool. The title derives from the epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Ignatius, the main character is something of a modern Don Quixote — eccentric, idealistic, and creative, but also misanthrope. His adventures in the search of a job and his evolution are really great.

Despite of my love for books and reading, I am, it is true, a little upset about the future of books. Nevertheless, I don’t think that books will totally disappear. Indeed, even if the advent of internet and technology (see the recent innovation of Apple, the Ipad) enables people to read books on internet , there will always be people loving reading printed books, because it is more authentic, more comfortable, more convenient. A paper book, you just can bring it everywhere. A computer or an Ipad, no. Thus, I do not believe in the “extinction” of paper book, but, yes, I believe paper books are an endangered specie.

Not only because of technology, but also because of the decreasing attraction books have among the young. The promotion of reading by the state is a hard task, and according to me, it should be the task of the parents, and not on a compelling way, but on an encouraging way.