Napoleon: The Bookworm Emperor
Little-known fact: Napoleon Bonaparte wasn’t French—at least not by birth. Maybe I missed that in history class, or maybe it was never touched on. Honestly, the only thing I ever really knew about him was that he was famous and died long before I was born.
Recently, though, I picked up a biography of him from my local library. Turns out, he was from Corsica. Don’t know where that is? That’s alright—I didn’t either. It’s an island just south of France, and it has a history of bouncing between different countries.
Anyway, that’s just bonus content. What I really wanted to talk about—the meat of this blog—is the literary side of Napoleon. Maybe I’ll write a bigger post on his life once I finish the book, but for now, here’s what stood out: Napoleon spent much of his youth in school. He studied hard, had to learn French to fit in, and he excelled.
What impressed me most was how much time he devoted to reading and taking notes. His note-taking was described as voluminous. That’s just a fancy way of saying a whole lot—lengthy, detailed, and full. He wrote pages and pages of notes and loved making lists.
Of course, that didn’t make him a best-selling author. I suppose he had to settle for becoming emperor of a world-leading nation. Poor guy. Still, I think it’s fascinating to learn about people in history who were so literarily inclined—and to see what they accomplished.
It just goes to show that good note-taking and plenty of reading can get you pretty far in life. Now, I’m not saying I’ll be the next emperor, but it’s fun to realize I share some of those same habits.
Vive la littérature!
