The experience of reading in a second language is something I recommend to any reader who has the option. I read in French slowly — roughly half my normal speed — and the enforced slowness changes the reading experience completely. I notice constructions I'd glide over in English. I'm aware of sound patterns. I'm close to the sentence in a way I'm not when I read comfortably.

What I've read in French: most of Patrick Modiano, who writes very clean prose that rewards careful reading; some Proust, which I suspect I'm only partially understanding; and a recent novel by Leila Slimani that I might reread in English to see what I missed.

The discovery is that language shapes what a book is. The same story in different languages is not quite the same story. This sounds obvious when stated but experiencing it is different from understanding it abstractly.