I go to the library almost every day, but today I had a purpose!! To see if Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude that I'd put on hold was waiting for me. No, it wasn't. The MLK Jr. main public library here has 20 copies. It'll be waiting soon.
I checked around a bit, and brought home two books by Mario Vargas Llosa--Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (one of my all-time favorite novels), and The Time of the Hero--a book that Isabel Allende said got Garcia Marquez started writing fiction. (Actually, she said it was "a first novel published in 1963 by 'a young Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa," and the closest I could come to that publication date for his books was The Time of the Hero.
It was my day to hit paydirt at the library. Everything I searched for was in and available. And I had great inspiration from Amy Goodman et al. on Democracy Now's interview with Isabel Allende about Garcia Marquez.
I also lugged home (big, fat book) The Collected Stores of Lydia Davis and Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. The latter was v popular when I was in grad school but I had no time or inclination to
read it then.
I still make it to the library at least once a week. I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was given a copy when I lived in Florida. It has been on the book shelves ever since . . I think it is time to re-read it. After I finish plowing through Don Quixote. I am DETERMINED to get to the end this time.
ReplyDeleteI have never read Don Quixote. How is it? (aside from being a classic)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great to hit paydirt at the library sometimes? There is nothing as great as falling in love with a book (well, not many things, anyway). One lifetime for reading is not enough. The D.N.
ReplyDeletetrue...one lifetime is not enough!! you have to reread all the wonderful old ones in addition to all the new ones! i still have to read the Deptford Trilogy again---soooo wonderful! Robertson Davies....a magical writer. Perhaps he writes Canadian magical realism (is that the term for GGM's style??) almost your natal day, kiddo!! xoxo, m.e.
DeleteEnjoy your feast of reads! I think my favorite by Marquez was Love in the Time of Cholera. I wish I had another lifetime to learn Spanish and travel around Latin America and read all the literature from that fascinating world.
ReplyDeleteLibrary day again: one down, two going back (not the Spanish ones), two more to pick up.
ReplyDeleteEvery now & then I think of moving to that part of the world--maybe not SOUTH America--Peru or Chile or Argentina--but CENTRAL America? Do I know Spanish?
Not well. I have 3 children and a couple of grandchildren who are reasonably fluent. Is one allowed to have pipe dreams in one's late 70s??
You go to the library daily? Daily?
ReplyDeleteHow long does it take you to read a book?
There are few books I can finish within 24 hours, Terry Pratchett ones and Suskinds Perfume come to mind. I guess I average about 2 per week for fiction; text-books take longer, some several months!
depends on the book, Stu. If it's well written and interesting--it takes me a day or two. Fiction is faster, but I read a lot of biographies, and they are quite interesting. Not too interested in text books these days. At the library I also look for DVDs, browse through the newspapers and magazines. Since I was a kid, I have always loved just browsing through the stacks. The main library here is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWe live out in the boonies. There is a bookbus which comes around the villages once every 3 weeks, bearing around 7000 media (books, CDs,DVDs). I just borrowed a Hunger Games DVD and a Gravity DVD. Otherwise their public is mostly schoolkids and housewives, so it's flaccid reading :-(
ReplyDeleteThe town library is 20 miles away; the university library has good textbook collection. The cathedral library has books (many in Latin) going back 1200 years!, but you may only read them there.
that's wonderful that they bring the DVDs and flaccid reading to you rather than forcing you to go 20 miles to get it! what cathedral??
ReplyDeleteI'm only 1/3 through the book. It is slow going. Perhaps if I had better Spanish and could read it in the language in which it was written it would be more charming.
ReplyDelete