Marlen Schachinger, what would you read and where?

Marlen Schachinger, you have the day off to read any book you choose anywhere you choose. What do you read and where?

"If I had a free day – a whole day? 24 hours? Oh! Then I wouldn't read. Not on your life. I would lounge on the chaise longue and meet all my friends.

Chances are I'd begin with A for Austen, Jane, if I felt that puns were suitable for breakfast. If the day started off rainy, B for Brett would remind me that things could be worse. S for Stein would set the breakfast table for me tenderly, buttons, and potatoes, certainly potatoes. For a change, a final change includes potatoes, and at some point the sky would certainly brighten, so that I could follow a breezy dragon's flight with G's hightly hunt for the blue – or his unfriendly cousin in Tolkien. I'm sure I might crack a smile about life with E for Enzensberger, this confusing, crazy, tender, sombre life, marvel at pasts with Colette, George Sand, Tolstoy and Ibsen, fortify myself with Malina at noon or We Kill Stella, and press the pause button in the afternoon with H for Hustvedt and The Summer Without Men. And should it get hot, The Waves of W will cool me down... or the good Mrs Dalloway? Orlando, in any case, Orlando and P would remind me with all the scents and climates that had spread through the room that once as a child I spent my days and nights buried in a book, whereas now today's I asks me constantly as I read: How is it done, tell me: How? Define, analyse: How? 

Maybe my hands would seek new friendships too, put an end to their stoic wait on the occasional table to the side, by breaking open the covers, turning the first page? In any event, there would be nightshades mixed with blue flowers for the long night."

26 May 2023