Paris + what I've been reading

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:09][music] >> That girl is a runner.

[00:00:30]She was born to get away.

[00:00:34]Hear that two-tone [singing and music] humming?

[00:00:37]Headed out to the highway.

[00:00:41]I should have seen it [music] coming.

[00:00:43]For the years left in the dust.

[00:00:47]That after all the >> [music and singing] >> lessons learned, it wouldn't have both of us. There's a first for everything, [music] like a hand holding mine.

[00:01:00]Now I'm left here with the pain from her I love you, goodbye.

[00:01:06]And though it hurts to watch my whole world become the woman [music] she would be.

[00:01:13]The thing that I forgot would set her free.

[00:01:18]I taught her [music] how to leave.

[00:01:34]18 [music] in the summer.

[00:01:36]Man, it [singing] feels like yesterday.

[00:01:40]When she was looking out that window on the bus [singing] to second grade.

[00:01:47]The first step she'd ever take.

[00:01:50]The first cut from a heartbreak.

[00:01:53]Been through it all, but [music] now [singing] it's time to go our separate ways.

[00:01:59]There's a first for everything, [music] like a hand holding mine.

[00:02:06]Now I'm left here with the pain from her I love you, goodbye.

[00:02:12]And though it hurts to watch my whole world become the woman [music and singing] she would be.

[00:02:19]The thing that I forgot would set her free.

[00:02:24]I taught her how to leave.

[00:02:46]Hi, welcome. As you can see, I went to Paris again with my mom, and we're going back in June, so I'm very excited about that. I enjoyed my dates so, so much, and I'm excited to go back in June. But, I also want to take a moment to let you know what I have been reading, what I have finished reading. Um, and these past weeks have been incredibly busy for me. I actually thought I wouldn't have time to record a video for today, but I think it'll be okay.

[00:03:21]I am still reading Ancient Greece: The Illustrated History, which is this one, and I'm going very slow, like about eight pages a day, and I talked about this in my vlog as well.

[00:03:36]The images really elevate the reading experience, and it's very interesting.

[00:03:41]I'm also still reading The Histories by Herodotus, and this is a translation by Tom Holland. I'm currently on page 378, but yes, it's like over 600 pages, so I still have some reading to do. It is much more accessible than I thought it would be, and I'm reading this buddy reading this with my friend Matthew from the Maybury Book Club. We often read books together, and it's always such fun. I think I made a good decision reading this in combination with the Ancient Greece history, because it just matches really well. And even though I wouldn't read this book for hours on end, it is enjoyable, and it's not too difficult to get through. Now, the translation plays a big part in this, so maybe it's just Tom Holland's translation that makes it so accessible. Then, I also finished La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, and it while it was enjoyable, I don't see myself reading it again. It's a story about a man who falls in love with a courtesan, and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, but it comes with a lot of challenges, of course. In the first few chapters, we already learn that she died, and we are following the story of Armand, who fell in love with her, and why and how he fell in love with her, and how it all ended tragically. I read it in the Oxford World's Classics translation, but I also read the French edition alongside it. In this book, there were a lot of references to Manon Lescaut, which was written by Abbé Prévost, and that book was already on my list for the longest time.

[00:05:31]And when I was in Paris, I found it in a bookstore.

[00:05:34]This is Manon Lescaut, and I thought this is a sign. I must pick it up, because at the time I was reading La Dame. And so, yes, I read it in the meantime. I I actually read them simultaneously, but I had to stop this one, because it was too similar to Dumas, his book. The story lines are extremely similar. Both works are also written in first person, both male protagonists, and both equally dramatic. I feel like these two works could have been written by the same author, and could even have been part of the same book. Like, if you would have let me read a chapter of Manon Lescaut and a chapter of La Dame, I couldn't have told you which one I was reading. So, yes, those are finished, and I bought one other book in Paris as well, the um Sketches from a Hunter's Album by Ivan Turgenev.

[00:06:35]It's this one.

[00:06:38]In the Penguin Classics. I still have the sticker with the price on it.

[00:06:44]And of course, it doesn't come off anyway. This is about the observations of the author's travels through Russia.

[00:06:52]It's filled with moving insights into the lives of those he encounters, peasants, landowners, doctors, bailiffs, neglected wives, and bereft mothers. So, it spoke to me, and I love his style.

[00:07:07]I've read Fathers and Sons, and I've read First Love, which I both loved. So, yes, I'm very excited to read this one in the future. And then finally, I have been reading uh the Essays of Michel de Montaigne in this Penguin Classics edition.

[00:07:24]I started it because I needed a book to read on the train. I have been traveling a lot lately, and I'm going to put this one aside for a while, because this is not my priority, but I must say that I'm really enjoying it. I'm only on page 50, but I can already say that I will absolutely love all of the essays in here. This was my quick update. I also want to mention that I still didn't have the time to record my book review on North and South. I'm going to try and do that this weekend. I hope you're doing well. Happy reading, and I will see you next week.