We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures
Philippe Delerm
Language: English
Pages: 112
ISBN: 0312203640
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
"A tiny breeze of delirious wisdom which changes everything and nothing...We could almost eat outside."
An enchanting valentine to the everyday delights life has to offer, this short book captured the imagination of the French public last year and became a number-one bestseller. Sales are now over 600,000 copies. In each brief chapter the author contemplates the seemingly ordinary experiences that add joy to life, whether it's the first sip of beer, the snowstorm inside a paperweight, reading an Agatha Christie novel, or the smell of apples.
At once uniquely French and yet universal, told with a lively, almost childlike curiosity, this charming book reminds us to enjoy and appreciate the small things that make life worthwhile.
Tintin — a figure the perfect cover for braving the chattering crowds on their way back from mass, and the billowing smoke from the betting shops, cafes and bars. Sundays with the — Sundays present pended by time hangs, a length of brown puff. as if in a ribbon. pears on the outside of the box Sundays past, family, — A censer sus- slight stain ap- that'll be the cream Helping Shell Peas It always happens at that low ebb of the morning when time stands still . The
you — Next, eyes glued to the display panel, you follow instructions: please please wait a series The heavy hypocrisy know that this is all cell. shrill At the same part of the initiation rit- through submitting to the machine you attain We Could Almost Eat Outside the most bewildering intimacy to the miracle, the sound — the human voice. make it It's of release as only now umbilical deep pitch of at last to the Then comes a the cuts out. it you that Prior
We Could Almost Eat Outside the almost that It's counts, and the use of the conditional. seems absurd at first. It's and there's been nothing but week. And now this. The suggestion only the beginning of rain, March wind and showers Since this morning, the sun's all been shining with a sort of dull intensity, a calm persistence. Lunch is ready, and the table's been seems different somehow, even slightly ajar, there's an audible laid. But everything inside. The
smacks of mockery. But the "assistant" has already in a wrapped your pieces of pink Turkish paper bag. You cast a bewildered eye over delight a treasure trove packed with chickpeas and Sidi Brahim wine, where even the stack of red cocoa boxes has feel to it. You pay up, defeated, and out, bag in hand. But outside a cabalistic like a thief you on the pavement, yards further on, you reap your just reward. slink a few The Turk- We Could Almost Eat Outside ish delight you buy
was too dangerous for children. And make the purpose of this knife? For they don't grandfathers like that anymore, and you're no longer a child. A virtual knife then, with this you never know when picnics, it might come lame excuse: "But in — handy even the odd job around the house aren't any other tools around walks, when there ." . . Of course you know you'll never use it. The pleasure lies its elsewhere. In the selfish enjoyment of exotic balistic wood emblem — on