P-Day

I agree with Andrew; September 22nd would seem to make an admirable starting point, and it would give us a chance to clear the decks of other reading projects.

The Day of Lost Time

Gentlemen - as P-Day approaches we've been splendidly Proustian in our moments of inactivity punctuated by protracted periods of naval-gazing, yet we still hasn't produced an official start date. We have, of course, decided that we will commemorate the important occasion that is the 85th anniversary of the publication of the first English translation of Swann's Way this September. However, this still leaves the small matter of which day in September (and the smaller matter of which time zone we utilise to mark the commencement of that day).

As for the day, the options are:
September 1st - being a logical start day. Clearly the choice of any straight-forward thinking individual. Or my personal preference:
September 22nd - since the first publication of said book was in September '22.

I also have an alterior motive, in that I am currently battling with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Sadly not One Hundred Years of Solitude (that being a situation any ambitious Proust-reader might appreciate), but the rather less good Love in the Time of Cholera. I'd ideally like to polish this off before tackling M. Proust. Still, there are three of us, so can I move to a vote on this issue.

As for the time zone - this is clear - we go with the neutral, Parisian-favoured Central European Summer Time - i.e. 11 pm British Summer Time or 6 pm Eastern Daylight Time the day before the official start date. Pedants who, at this juncture, feel the need to point out that Daylight Saving Time didn't exist in Marcel's day should continue their naval-gazing in silence.

3 Men and a Book

1922 would appear to have been quite a busy year - Eliot and Joyce were publishing around then; The Great Gatsby is also set in 1922.

A September start-date is fine with me, although it robs me of my advantage (i.e. the summer). Until then, I'm reading William C. Carter's biography of Proust.

Anniversaire

Further to the offline contribution from Alexis, we should note that the English translation of Swann appeared in September 1922, a fitting start point. I cannot find a precise date, so we can pick one.

Also, I note we are not the only ones to have attempted this; one suspects this is not the universe of Proust blogs, but it's the one I found.

Vacation reading

Anyone itching to get stuck into several thousand pages of tedium might wish to consider Alain de Botton's excellent appraisal. I read it several years ago when I had no intention of tackling the main feature, so I feel it could serve as a useful appetiser.

One has to wonder, however, with Monsieur de Botton's sole motivation for writing this book was to publicise the fact that he has read A La Recherche. This, in my view, is entirely commendable.