"Swann's Way"

The cookie that launched
4000+ pages (not a joke)

My book group decided to tackle Proust's seven-volume A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, usually translated as "In Search of Lost Time," over the next two years. The idea is to space out the reading and schedule multi-month breaks between volumes so we have time to read other things in the meantime. For my part, I find the optimism required to schedule anything out that far in advance quite admirable, and there's no way I'd read this work on my own, so I decided to join in and see what the draw is...and, of course, see how the original compares to Monty Python's classic All-England Summarize Proust Competition.

"The Liar in Your Life"

Ironically, the subtitle is lying

"The Liar In Your Life" is about why people lie. It defines "lie" in a way that is unarguably true, though perhaps uncomfortable for many. Contrary to popular belief, lies are usually not told for personal gain. Most lies are either what we'd call lies of omission or "white lies," and these serve a specific social purpose. Often, people want to be deceived and the person telling the lie is simply playing along:

Unless we decide we want to know that our new haircut is a mess, that our child is a terrible Little Leaguer, that our colleague is not happy to run into us at the gym—and, indeed, unless we are prepared to tell other people this sort of thing—deception is here to stay.