Welcome to Overthink.

The podcast where two philosophers talk about things we've enjoyed reading.

And occasionally stuff that we didn't enjoy so much.

I'm Dr. Ellie Anderson.

And I'm Dr. David Pena-Gusman.

David, today we are talking about one of our favorite activities, reading.

Yeah, something that every academic is deeply passionate about, each of us in our own way.

And I recently read Proust's Journay de Lecture, which translates into days of reading.

And I have to say, it was a beautiful book about Proust's childhood, where he describes the joy,

the intense joy that he got from reading as a kid.

And he talks about it in a way that I really related to because I was a nerd, you know, as a child.

And I really enjoyed reading.

I used to go to the park with my books and be a nerd.

And Proust talks about reading as something that awakens the imagination of children

and as something that begins to develop a child's consciousness and their sense of time and space

and gives them a sense of belonging in the world.

And I think that's definitely how I think of reading

as a world-building, nest-creating activity. Yes, I love that. Simone de Beauvoir has these

beautiful passages in her memoirs about being a young girl going to Marignac, which was a beautiful town in the French

countryside where her grandparents lived. And just like going out into the fields and into the

little forests and reading. And I've just always loved those images of her having those

childhood formative experiences of reading in nature.

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