The Start of the Journey

"Vivre ce n'est pas respirer, c'est agir [...]." from Émile ou De l'éducation Rousseau

Translation : "Living is not breathing, it's acting [...]."

First day of school is Thursday 2nd of September. I am quite excited to see what this journey brings. I do not have information when to be at the school building nor what my daily schedule will look like. Nonetheless I was given three books to read the French-Philosophy class :

• Aké, les années d'enfance by Wole Soyinka
• Émile ou De l'éducation (Books I-II) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Contes by Christian Andersen

The theme for this year is "childhood". I already finished the two first ones and I am still reading Andersen's stories.

Each book has a completely different approach to the main theme. Soyinka tells the story of his childhood as a retrospective memoir. Rousseau gives his own theory on how to raise children by raising an imaginary child that he calls Émile. Finally Andersen's stories are not directly related to children, but they can be considered short stories for children however dark some of them may be.

I will try to include every week some reading/listening/watching suggestions. This week it would be Austin Kleon's "Steal Like an Artist" audio trilogy which is altogether four and a half hours long if listened at x1 speed. I personally listened to it on audible but if you prefer ebooks or paperback it's available in all versions. As I already mentioned, this book made me consider the creation of this website.

“The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” Austin Kleon

P.S. I just received the keys to my first ever apartment. I could not have wished for a better place : it was recently renovated, it has a separate bedroom and a small outside area. Moreover it is location-wise absolutely amazing.

Let me know if you enjoyed this week's post!