A Booksmith Journal

Superheroes are complex creatures. Not existing beyond the realm of fiction, yet they influence us and our collective behaviour in ways we can’t even fully grasp. This should be said with regard to fiction in general. But the figure of a superhero is a personalization, an analogy, and a condensation of values, feelings, and desires. So strong that, in many cases, the superhero becomes independent and breaks free from scripts. Grant Morrison wrote this book about superheroes. The idea behind this exploration is simple: superheroes can tell us much about our times, longings and psychology. To explain this point, Morrison navigates through the history of North American superheroes, from 1938 to the present time. He is one of the most renowned contemporary comic writers, and this book navigates through the history of North American comics’ superheroes while telling his personal story and journey as a comic book writer and reader.  The books promise to be “your definitive guide ...

Fue uno de los primeros autores argentinos que leí en profundididad. Había algo en verdad mágico para mi en esa experiencia, y no tenía nada que ver con la literatura. Y es que resulta que en el colegio nos hacían leer novelas, cuentos y poemas. Las maestras más abiertas nos daban para leer a Cortazar o quizás algo de Haroldo Conti. Pero había un muro infranqueable. Y es que ellos llevaban mucho tiempo muertos. Todos ellos. Y cuando te mostraban una fotografía de ellos (en especial de Borges) y parecían un dinosaurio, entonces esa distancia de años pasaba a ser de siglos, continentes.  Pero eso cambió cuando conocí los cuentos de Abelardo Castillo y Juan Gelman. Sí, por algún motivo, a los vivos se los llamaba con el nombre completo. Recién cuando morían pasaban a tener esa fría jerarquía de quien es magnífico pero -de ahora en más- por siempre inaccesible. Pero los dos estban vivos en ese momento, y eso mismo los convertía en una especie de gigantes vivien...

Later I will find out that the artist was the man who will got worldwide recognition with the Walking Dead . But until then, for me, it was just another name on the book cover. *** How I got to this book? This is a war story, so I was initially reluctant to pick it. But the cover immediately reminded me of El Eternauta ': a landmark in Argentinian comic history in which Buenos Aires city (and the world) is victim of a full-scale alien attack. The aliens' first move was a fluorescent snow that fell from the sky, killing anyone who exposed him/herself to direct contact. Hence the use of that "scuba diver" suit from the cover. The story is worth a review for english readers, and I promise to write mine. White Death's title and cover art immediately resembled an old favourite in my mind, and that's how it ended up in my bookshelf. *** But this story is the story of another war, of the Trentino front in WWI, somewhere in the Alps. My 2014 edition include...

Each book lover has a way to sort his bookshelf. The criteria could change with time, but I always thought of our bookshelves -our selection, place it has in the house and the way it's arranged- as a map of our character. In my case, I have a shelf specially designated to books that are classics, that I heard and talked about, I recommended them but, for some reason, have been snoozed over and over in my reading log. The Dark Knight Returns was one of them, until now. *** So many things were said and analyzed about this graphic novel classic, that I decided to read none of those, so it doesn't prejudice my experience. I am most definitely not immersed in the DC comic universe, so I'm just your average nonspecialized reader. For the earthlings that know nothing about this, here's a brief. The Dark Knight Returns is a Batman story written in the mid-80s. The more I read from that decade, the more I feel that artists in those times were not particularly opt...

La imaginación equivale a múltiples viajes, Y es mucho más barata! George William Curtis (1824-1892) Solía escribir acerca de mis lecturas. Dejé de hacerlo hace bastante, y retomarlo es más difícil de lo que pensaba. Es que ultimamente me volví una persona más aburrida. Entonces fue que leí a Kurt Vonnegut. El año pasado participé de un breve club de lectura (en inglés), y tuve la oportunidad de leer Slaughterhouse Five (Matadero Cinco). Hacía mucho que no leía un relato tan auténtico y peculiar. Bueno, Galápagos es una novela donde resurge esa originalidad, aunque un poco más discreta en el famoso repertorio del autor. La leí traducida al español, y esta fue mi experiencia de lectura. *** Vonnegut me gusta porque es un volado. No se nada de él, pero sus pensamientos se disparan en cualquier dirección, y él sabía como hacer literatura de eso. En el siglo XXI, ser un volado equivale a ser diagnosticado con algún trastorno de atención como ADHD, o como se escriba...

New general rule For a book read in English will correspond a review in the same language. Same applies for Spanish. These days I've been trying to read L'étranger in its original language: a french review coming soon? Yes, I've been reading. Not much, not enough. But I put some use to my spare time. It's no surprise that I love graphic novels, and that I've been reading quite a few of them lately. Here's one. *** One of its finest moments This book is an adaptation of Albert Camus' L'étranger (The Stranger). Jacques Ferrandez is Algerian as well, and decided to re tell Monsieur Meursault's story adding his watercolours and his own artistic edge. I have to be honest: when I read the novel for the first time I thought almost immediately "what a great piece of modern literature! ...and a testimony that some books just can't be turned into movies". And I still stand by it: the deep complexity of the character and it's intro...