Check out this bit of loveliness:
It can be yours for a mere $420.00 (plus $6.00 Shipping). There is at least one other limited edition of this novel at an equally outrageous price. I hope Carlos RZ is getting a slice if that pie.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,367) April 24, 2024
Read to page 65. Off to a good start, reviving my interest in The Story.
I think that a lot of the time good writing comes down to word choice. For instance, "A skyline stabbed by hundreds of chimneys...." (3) That "stabbed" is just a beautiful thing. Without it, the phrase is mundane and passes by unnoticed.
And then there's this: "[He] subscribed to the theory that the liberal use of adverbs and adjectives was the mark of a pervert or someone with a vitamin deficiency." (4)
There's a reference to a Spanish writer, Benito Pérez Galdós, of whom I'd not previously heard, so I went to our good friends at Wikipedia for some informationand got this: "Benito Pérez Galdós (10 May 1843 – 4 January 1920) was a Spanish realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Miguel de Cervantes in stature as a Spanish novelist."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_P%C3%A9rez_Gald%C3%B3s
¡Caray!
So I went over to the LFPL to see what I could see. There were 7 items listed. 2 were books about Galdós' writing. 1 was an anthology of Plays by Spanish writers. 1 was a novel in Spanish. Of the other three, all novels, two were book books--one in Remote Shelving (of course) and the other buried in an International Collection--and one, Dona Perfecta, was an e-book. I went for the latter because of the blurb which read, in part, "one of the towering masterpieces of nineteenth-century...."
So there's another path to follow through the literary forest.
And then there's this:
Day 2 (DDRD 2,368) April 25, 2024
Read to page 165. Yep, I spent some serious time on the couch reading. Pretty absorbing book. Might read some more later, but for now, duty calls, I cannot linger....
Day 3 (DDRD 2,369) April 26, 2024
Read to page 266.
Next time I hear someone say that Black people are just naturally better athletes, before I tell them that they're being racist, I'm going to recite this:
"Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, os the work, the vocation, and the technique." (182)
And how about this:
"It is impossible to survive in a prolonged state of reality, at least for a human being. We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especiallywhen we'reawake." (202 - 203)
"The incompetent always present themselves as experts, the cruel as pious, sinners as devout, usurers as benefactors, the small-minded as patriots, the arrogant as humble, the vulgar as elegant, and the feeble-minded as intellectual." (203)
First thought after reading 50 pages today: "How on 🌎 could I have already read 50 pages?????"
"The main pillar of organized religion, with few exceptions, is the subjugation, repression, even the annulment of women in the group. Woman must accept the role of an ethereal, passive, and maternal presence, never of authority or independence, or she will have to suffer the consequences. She might have a place of honor in the symbolism, but not in the hierarchy. Religion and war are male pursuits. And anyhow, woman sometimes ends up becoming the accomplice in her own subjugation." (251)
Holes shit, Batman. That's a spicey ah-meat-a-ball!
You know, if I had $426 sitting around, I think I'd buy that red motherfucker. (👆)
Later....
Oops, I read it again. To page 295. And I STILL might read more, because I'm mos dev caught in its gravity. Let's see, 531 pages, which means 236 pages to go. And at the rate I'm going (65, 100, 130), that is probably not going to take me long to polish off--like 2 days, 3 at the most. So I put in a request for the next book, El prisionero del cielo (The Prisoner of Heaven).
And the beat goes on.
Y' know...if I'm going to read this whole The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series...which it appears I am, indeed, going to do...then I might as well go ahead and do the whole Carlos Ruiz Zafón oeuvre, right? I mean...
El príncipe de la niebla (1993), translated as The Prince of Mist (2010)
El palacio de la medianoche (1994), translated as The Midnight Palace (2011)
Las luces de septiembre (1995), translated as The Watcher in the Shadows (2013)[12]
Marina (1999), translated as Marina (2013)
El cementerio de los libros olvidados series (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books)
La sombra del viento, 2001 (The Shadow of the Wind)
El juego del ángel, 2008 (The Angel's Game)
El prisionero del cielo, 2011 (The Prisoner of Heaven)
El laberinto de los espíritus, 2016 (The Labyrinth of Spirits)
La ciudad de vapor, 2021 (The City of Mist)
Day 4 (DDRD 2,370) April 27, 2024
Read to page 375. So that's another 80 pages down. And probably more later on, but as of now a mere 156 pages to go.
How's this for an apt summary of the MAGA movement?
"Nothing makes us believe more than fear, the certainty of being threatened. When we feel like victims, all our actions and beliefs are legitimized, however questionable they may be. Our opponents, or simply our neighbors, stop sharing common ground with us and become our enemies. We stop being aggressors and become defenders. The envy, greed, or resentment that motivates us becomes sanctified, because we tell ourselves we're acting in self-defense. Evil, menace — those are always the preserve of the other. The first step for believing passionately is fear. Fear of losing our identity, our life, our status, or our beliefs. Fear is the gunpowder and hatred is the fuse. Dogma, the final ingredient, is only a lighted match." (297)
Day 5 (DDRD 2,371) April 28, 2024
Read to page 463. Busy day. Thought I was going to finish this book today...and still might, I suppose...but with only 63 pages remaining, I'm sure that tomorrow will do it.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,372) April 29, 2024
Read to page 531 = The End. A very good--and a very quick--read. An average of 88.5 pages per day, which us almost 3 times my goal. And I did it because the story pulled me along so hard that I really couldn't help it. Maybe this is the kind if book kids should be reading in high school; books that are serious and even "literary," but which are also exciting and compelling.
And yes, I am going to read the next book: El prisionero del cielo (The Prisoner of Heaven). Unfortunately, it looks like the Northeast Branch of the library has lost their copy, so I think I'm going to drive downtown and pick one up.
Onward.
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