From literary walks to silent reading party: the importance of books and the art of telling them

Read the books not only to get to know new places, but also to rediscover yourself through the words of the writers. This is the spirit of Flâneusethe project conceived by the journalist Marta Perego, who invites you to live books not as simple guides, but as travel companions in the most significant moments of their existence.

“My flâneuse”, says Marta Perego, “are above all women, girls, but some men are also going slowly … who decide to open up to an inner space … Today there is a lot of talk about” personal growth “, but I prefer to call it inner growth: a path made of silence, reading, philosophical practices, literary walks. Moments in which we can stop, listen to us, really connect with what we have inside and with what surrounds us.
In this frenzy that often envelops and suffocates us, finding a pause space is already a revolutionary act. Reading helps us to live these passages. It makes us enter the lives of others, teaches us empathy, but above all it offers us new meanings to read our existence. And these new meanings often do not come from logic or rationality, but from something more subtle: intuition. An intuition that many writers and writers have cultivated and that we, today, risk losing because we do not leave them space. We are overwhelmed by commitments, responsibilities, notifications. But getting lost in the pages, getting lost in the deepest and non -contaminated places of ourselves, is often the best way to find ourselves. And to give new light to everything around us ».

Who are the flâneuse

The term flâneuse derives from French flâneura word that describes an emblematic figure of the nineteenth -century Paris: a gentleman who walks aimlessly through the city, observing the world with a careful, curious and reflective eye. The concept became famous thanks to the poet Charles Baudelaire and then deepened by philosophers such as Walter Benjamin, who described him as a “city player”.

Flâneuse It is the female form of the term, but historically it appeared much later. This is because for a long time the figure of flâneur It remained linked to a typically male urban experience: women were not granted the same type of freedom in public space. Only in more recent times, with the change of social and cultural roles, the flâneuse He began to emerge as an autonomous figure: a woman who walks alone, explores, observes, reflects, and makes the city and its paths an intimate and intellectual experience. Today flâneuse Thus has become a symbol of inner freedom, of exploration not only of the urban space, but also of themselves.

With his project that started from social media and then landed in the real world, Marta Perego guide small groups to discover the literary cities, crossing the places lived and told by great authors. Like the Milan of Alda Merini, explored by reading her poems along the Navigli and visiting the house museum dedicated to her. Or via Mascheroni 23, on the trail of Antonia Pozzi. And again, the Milanese places of A love by Dino Buzzati in Corso Garibaldi, or the Turin of Cesare Pavese.

A journey into books and inside yourself, step by step, word after word.

Silent reading party

The concept was born as a response to frenzy and constant social stimulation of our times. The first Silent reading party Of which there is a regular news was born in Seattle, in 2009, conceived by the writer and cultural promoter Silent Book Club and the journalist Christopher Frizzelle, who organized monthly evenings at the Hotel Sorrento. The idea then spread all over the world, giving life to a movement that today has events in many cities, often in environments relaxed with soft lights, live music or simply the sound of pages that leaf through.

One of the Silent Book Party organized by Marta Perego was the one with Antonio Moresco and his Love letter to Giacomo Leopardi.
A book that is a literary tribute, a declaration of love, an surprising journey between philosophy, pain, irony and poetic visions.

«We have read in silence, for an hour, immersed in the voice of Moresco who tells a very current, deep leopardi, still capable of speaking to each of us. And then – as in a small miracle – the author really arrived. With him we shared another hour of words, laughter, questions and thoughts. And in the end, a hot tea and a slice of cake ».

Today, however, with his new book Breakfast at the park with Virginia WoolflAnd walks move to the park, where through classical books, it traces an existential path: from the crisis of 30 years in the pages of The Tartar desert by Dino Buzzati, to old age with The art of joy of Goliarda Sapienza, up to the search for happiness in the small things between the pages of Mrs. Dalway by Virginia Woolf.

The book is not a memoir, even if personal experience is the starting point. It is rather a reflection on the transformative power of reading, on how books, always the same, but never the same, manage to talk to us in different ways depending on the moment we are experiencing.

Breakfast at the park with Virginia Woolf It comes out on May 9th by Vallardi.