A Booksmith Journal

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...