Several years ago I was just looking for meaning, as usual, and I really needed to find the central point of my active life, that is how I had to spend my energies without having to rely on anybody else (and I really mean anybody else).
During this search it just happened to me to find Sistema Periodico. I had not read anything by Levi before. I started reading and chapter after chapter I found pleasure and consolation in that consistent, rational prose.
I ended up reading other books written by him (Se questo e' un uomo, of course, La tregua).
It happened several years ago, so I don't really remember much of the Sistema Periodico as a book.
The chapter that I want to mention, though, is Cromo where he describes the way he recovered a considerable amount of paint which had changed state.
It was so fascinating: in general, it is difficult to write about the gratification you feel in a technical field after your repeated efforts succeed.
You really think you have done something useful for everybody and your increased competence gives you self-confidence.
Interestingly enough, from the incredibly detailed biography written by Ian Thomson, which I have not read (yet), I copy the following quotation:
Each of us is three different people: the person we really are, the person we believe we are, and the person other people see us as.Levi's writings are really worth reading.
