Slow pace...

Only 9, and I think I'll fiinish the year with 10, since the book on deck is more than 1,000 pages long. I'm really looking forward to it, though.

Yeah, I must confess I've read a lot of other stuff in between the laureates. I could have made it to 20, easily, but I read two of my favorite writer and several others because they are lighter reading and I needed a mental break.

I'll make an extra effort from now on.

Saramago's Death

I don't know why this book hasn't been turned into a movie. Maybe it has and I just don't know it. Anyway, if it has, I won't watch it because it can't be better than the book.

I have to admit, I started this book with a huge bias. Saramago was a secular writer, but that's not a problem, I was raised in a hyper-secular environment myself, the problem to me is that he was also an ardent critic of almost everything I believe in, so I started this book with a sigh, wishing I could skip him, but concluding that I must read him more out of a sense of duty than anything else.

Sure enough, the attacks were present from the get-go, but I was drawn in by the premise of the book: Death seemed to have taken a holiday. People quite simply stopped dying. At first, everybody thought it was great, they could live forever, but then the very practical aspects of life took over... If nobody dies, what will happen to the pension system, to healthcare? What to do with grandpa who is not dying and not getting better, either, just laying there in limbo? What to do with the old men and women that will inevitably crowd retirement homes and hospitals, putting an unbearable strain on the state's ability to care for its citizens and overwhelm insurance companies and private health care providers?

This is how the book starts and, even though this is the premise that is followed for a good 2/3 of the book, I say starts because it then takes an unexpected turn and we go from people and the State (most likely Portugal, Saramago's native land) as central characters, to death itself (not Death, but death, this difference is of critical importance) only to sync back with the original story in the very last line of the book.

I don't think I'd ever read anything more imaginative than this book. I recommend you read it, but remember, I'm not recommending it because I agree with Saramago's views about life and morals, but because it is an example of the power of human inventive powers.

Almost a Prophet

This was quite a treat. You probably have been asked the question about if you could meet any three people, dead or alive, who would them be? I don't know about yours, but I'm pretty sure about two out of those three (my third slot is still up for grabs) Martin Luther King Jr., and Sir Winston Churchill. Since Mr. Churchill was not only a Statesman -and one of the greatest the world has ever seen- but a prolific painter and writer, he managed to win a war and the Nobel Prize. And this is a Nobel prize that awarded as a result of an observable body of work, not because social media, the 24-hour cycle and the ignorance of people has made you a star. You actually have to be derserving for this one, as he was. On a side note, there used to be a bust of Mr. Churchill inside the Oval office and the current occupant sent it back to the British embassy in D.C. Must have made him feel inadequate.

Well, I read a collection of speeches compiled by Mr. Churchill's grandson. Every one of them is poetic, but more importantly, almost prophetic (sometimes without the almost) and made me wonder if we're ever going to see a true leader like this again. Churchill himself said that one of his achievements was "the mobilisation of the English language" and you can really see this unfold in his speeches, he writes in such a way that it makes you react, in some way, but you can't stay passive after reading his speeches. They must have fallen like bombshells on the House's floor when he delivered them with his well polished orator's voice. It is impressive to read how he foresaw the advent of Nazi Germany and even lost his seat for proclaiming it (yes, a politician that prefers to lose his seat rather than change his convictions. Apparently, they used to exist) and did not regain it until years later, well, he really did not because he went from holding no office to being Prime Minister of the only country (yes, this is factually correct) that was actively fighting the Nazi plague.

While most of his speeches were about the war, some of the latter ones are about the perils of economic uncertainty and the threat of socialism. I believe that there is still much to learn and apply in our day from what the great Mr. Churchill wrote 50 years ago. I fully recommend you get any compilation of his speeches or one of the history books he wrote and dive in. But remember, this is a man who, in addition to being a prolific writer had the fate of the free world in his hands, at the same time, and did both thigns extremely well. Simply amazing.

By the way

The title of Muller's book is "The Appointment", should you care to read it...

Off to Romania.

Back to good old socialilst / former socialist countries. Herta Muller won the prize in 2009, just last year, she was born in Romania and now lives in London, in case anybody wants to meet her in person.



This book is odd. It’s the first book I’ve ever read in which not a single question is ended with a question mark. It gives everything a sense of dejection, very much in tune with the book itself. An example: “And what about the ring.” Instead of: “And what about the ring?” The question mark makes you think the person is engaged, really wants to know the answer, while the question without it makes you think the person doesn’t care anymore, the question is an after-thought, a non-issue. Well, it’s not fortuitous, the entire book is like that, it shows you life from the perspective of somebody that doesn’t really care, that used to care, but not anymore. The death of her closest friends, the political intrigues of the socialist regime, endless interrogations (she’s suspected as a spy) and an alcoholic life-partner have sucked the joy away from her life.



This book is like an abstract painting. If you like them you would like this book. It’s really not my favorite, but I do recommend it.



Off to England and one of the men I admire the most: Sir Winston Churchill. Yes, he won the Nobel prize, too, but one that actually counts!

Sub-prime mortgage crisis in turn-of-the-century Iceland

So I read Halldor Laxness’ “Independent People”. It’s about a man, Bjarthur of Sommerhouses, that spends his entire life trying to be independent. Of everything. Of landlords, God, wants, needs, love, everything. He holds independence as the highest and truest value a man can attain.


Honestly, the book is not that much to talk about. He Raises sheep, 95% of the book is about sheep. The most interesting part is when, late into his life, he decides to build a house. Iceland is doing really well because of world war I, when apparently, they were supplying the rest of Europe with goods. Bjarthur is doing really well in this environment so he goes to the savings and loan company and asks for a mortgage loan… you know where this is going. They lend him the money, happily, and then the sheep market crashes after the end of the war, Bjarthur can’t sell his sheep, he defaults on his mortgage and the bank forecloses. So the issue is not new, people have been getting themselves under water for more than a century, almost two, actually.

Other than this, the book is good because of its imagery and descriptions of Iceland, you almost feel cold as you’re reading it, so if you’re interested in learning about a little known place, certainly learning about Iceland in a non-transportation related way (remember the volcano that halted flights all over Europe?) this is a good book. It’s not up-lifting, it won’t make you feel good, but you will remember the characters and end up feeling like they are personal acquaintances.

I liked it well enough, but I’m not dying to read another of Halldor’s books any time soon.

It's only been five!

And it's already June. And I must confess, I am reading "El Asedio", the latest novel by Don Arturo Perez-Reverte, my all-time favorite writer, so it might go even slower... Anyway, I've decided to come up with my personal rankings as of now, and here they are for you to disagree with:

1. Hemingway
2. Solzhenitsyn
3. Camus
4. Faulkner
5. Neruda

I'll update it when I get to 10.