The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition

Ivan Chermayeff Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

By Ivan Chermayeff November 29, 2013

Ivan Chermayeff, Graphic Designer: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv (New York)

This November marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Marcel Proust’s opus, In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu), originally known in English as Remembrance of Things Past. To honor the occasion, we developed the Designers & Books version of the eponymous Proust Questionnaire, which we’ve sent out to various contributors and friends. Rather than including the questions from the original that asked about a wide array of “thoughts and feelings,” our adaptation focuses solely on the respondent’s relationship to books.

View the complete questions asked in The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

Here are the answers Ivan Chermayeff sent in response to the Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition:

1. Of these, your reading preference: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama:
Nonfiction.

2. Your favorite childhood book (or favorite childhood author):
E.B. White.

4. Your favorite book title (because you like the sound of it):
Ho for a Hat!

5. A book you could never finish:
The Bible.

7. If for some reason it turned out that you could save one and only one book from among those you own, which would it be:
So Human an Animal by René Dubos.

9. The best “book as object” you own (how it looks over what it says):
Matisse (MoMA) by Alfred Barr.

10. Your reading speed: very slow, slow, moderate, fast, very fast:
Moderate to fast.

11. While you read, are you a note-taker? If yes, where do you record your notes:
No.

12. Your most idiosyncratic reading habit:
Starting too late to stay awake.

15. If you are what you read, the book that best says who you are:
Paul Rand’s Thoughts on Design.

16. Your favorite writer of the gender opposite yours:
Nancy Mitford.

17. The last book you bought:
Ronald Dworkin’s Religion Without God.

18. Your favorite place to purchase books:
Amazon.

19. The book you are currently reading:
Religion Without God (see #17).

21. The current location of the book you will read next:
On my bookshelf to reread, as I’ve forgotten it but liked it.

22. Your favorite format for books: paper or pixels
Paper.

23. If you could have written any book:
War and Peace.

View all Questionnaires.

Also see “Celebrating a Proust Anniversary with The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition.”

Steven Heller Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

Michael Bierut Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

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