A book I love

Hello flower,

Today is day three, and I'm going to be writing about one of my favourite books.

A Book I Love


I couldn't possibly say what my favourite book of all time is, so I've gone with one of my top ten.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. 

Because I tend to read novels, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a slightly different choice for me, being a translation of the French memoir.

Bauby was a successful journalist, and the editor of French Elle magazine. On the 8th of December, 1995, Bauby suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke twenty days later, mentally aware of his surroundings, but physically paralysed with what is known as locked-in syndrome, with the only exception of some movement in his head and eyes. 

The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day) using a transcriber who repeatedly recited the alphabet until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about two hundred thousand blinks to write and an average word took approximately two minutes.

When I picked up the book for the first time, I knew the background of how it had been written, so I almost felt I owed it to Bauby to read it due to the hardship he undertook in writing it. I didn't realise quite how beautifully written it would be. There was a film adaption made of the book in 2007, which is equally brilliant.

I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a little perspective. 

“I need to feel strongly, to love and admire, just as desperately as I need to breathe.” Jean-Dominique Bauby

Love and peace, 

Heppy xxx