Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) wrote daily for over 40 years without producing a single book. This selection from his notebooks, edited and translated by Paul Auster, contains samples of his reflections on writing, judgments of his contemporaries, pronouncements against scientific materialism, parenting tips, aesthetic musings, comments on the Revolution and its aftermath, and cosmic miniatures. Not published in their entirety until 1938, the notebooks reveal Joubert as an author of great clarity and depth, perhaps France's first truly modern writer. Thought for the Day- 'The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading old books'.