Ok, so, the books I've read in the last couple of months are...

( books, books, books )

Also, I'd add a couple of short stories from Edgar Allen Poe (from his "Sci-Fi" fiction) and this comic book (graphical novel) named ARRUGAS that I would recommend to everyone with only one reservation: it's sad, really, really sad. Apart from that, simply beautiful.

Books III





Wilt

Tom Sharpe



I was thinking one day how I missed reading a good Tom Sharpe Novel when I stumbled upon an old copy of Wilt.

Reading Sharpe is pure joy. The way his characters can descend into madness and chaos with just the littlest of shoves, the way he describes (and mocks) English society (and American, and South African, and…). I simply love it and reading Wilt I realized I need to reread some of his novels again, because he is a master of surrealism and mayhem.



La ciudad de los prodigios

Eduardo Mendoza



Another author I love, another pending novel for sooo many years… Now it’s read. I won’t go so far as to say it’s my favourite Mendoza’s novel (it would be difficult to pick one) but it surely will be one of my favourite novels from now on. It’s a sordid take on some glorious period in Barcelona, the kind of view you don’t get in history books.



Ann Veronica

H.G. Wells



I discovered this book by sheer chance. I stumbled upon it in Sant Antoni’s Flee market and I told myself: “A feminist novel by H.G. Wells? How come I don’t have it already?” So I bought it (it costed 3 euros) and read it in less than a week. For people today is a cute novel about a girl that doesn’t want to just marry and be proper, a girl who likes biology and studying and wants to live her life in her own terms. We’ve seen far too much of that. But in 1909 it had to be a revolutionary book, nearly incendiary. Lovely little novel, really interesting in its portrait of early XXth Century’s English society.



Seda

Alessandro Bariricco



Little tale that one can read in a couple hours. I loved the way it’s written (so fairytale like) and the story that unfolds so slowly, so softly, as a piece of delicate silk cloth.



The Golem

Gustav Meyrink



I thought I had already read it, but as I went on I discovered that not. Perhaps I began it and never finished it, perhaps I as mistaking it for another book… don’t know. Anyhow, it’s now read. This may be one of the weirdest books I’ve read (and I’ve been beta reader). I mean, all the cabbalistic symbology scapes me. It’s interesting, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure for people that knows about what they are reading it will be far more interesting.

I felt like that time when I read Herman Hesse’s Damian. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m sure the true meaning of the book scapes me.



Una princesa en Berlín

Arthur R.G. Solmssen



Another book that had rested in my shelves for a bit too long (price is in pesetas!!). The thing is I bought it while I was in college, thinking I would read it someday because a teacher recommended it. I was much more interested in fantasy and sci-fi back then, though, and let it rest on the shelves until the time came.

The time has come and I’m glad I bought it back then, because perhaps now I wouldn’t have thought about buying it and thus I’ll never read this incredibly rich and interesting portrait of German society in between wars.

Anyone interested in understanding the Nazi uprising in Germany should read it. It really shows lots of different points of view.

( Books I’ve read since last time I posted )

I’ve also read some short stories by Osamu Tezuka and some comics, but bookwise that’s the whole lot.