Off-topic : read anything and everything

Not so much off-topic. You've got a hard time here suggesting and getting interest in things out of standards, and the classroom is no different than the outside world. A language where there is no proper translation for the French verb "se débrouiller" is not prone to act outside the boundraries of rules (for which there are many words). I have been unleashing at each course the absolute necessity for students to open their mouth, in the secured surrounding of their home, and read aloud, anything, and everything, and not only the foreign language but their own language.

Now Charles Bukowski is giving a helping hand in the introduction of John Fante "Ask the dust" (in this beautiful cover edition). Starving and drunk, he spends time in an L.A. public library on the lookout for something valuable to read. And he reads and peruse most about anything until he bumps into Fante's books. Before that, he tries everything, religion, philosophy, mathematics, geology, even surgery. The introduction is short and simple, but Bukowski's searching that brings him to "taste" everything came as a wonderful wink from some years ago.

The very same day I read the introduction, a few hours later on, I had a talk with Y. in Paris and a heart crushing beauty of a daughter of his I hadn't seen for years until that day thanks to Skype. I showed the book over the camera to Y. because I know his fondness for Bukowski, and he jumped at the sight, as he was lamenting not to find any left over of the sold out translation of the novel in French. Talk about coincidences.