On books and reading...

I just finished up reading the "mitos de Cthulhu" from Lovecraft... it's always great to try a new author, a different style... but it's even better when you realize you like it a lot. Sometimes when you like one or two authors you kind of stick around their work, but it's good to open the door to some new names... you get invited often to places you never imagined existed, or get some old stories told in a way that you didn't think they could be expressed. This happened with Lovecraft in my case, and so it did with Borges and García Marquez, which are some of the "new guys" I am allowing in my bookshelf...

It's so cool to learn about some new culture... or some aspect of your own that you ignored... to see some of the magic that is there and you just don't realize... and books can always do that. It can be a treaty on the mithology of some country, a study of some religion, a bunch of short great tales, or some cool novel... there is always something interesting lingering in between those pages.

Books are so great... they are windows to wonderful lands, magic rugs that let you travel around places that can just exist in your mind... or they are wonderful filters that make the most ordinary thing wonderful, that can make a wonderful story of the act of having a meal... or can make you realize the magic in something as "simple" as a stone... Whether they take you places out of this world, or they bring magic to this same world, books are just great... so great actually, that sometimes you struggle between revisiting an old friend, or going some place new. It happens that sometimes you see a book in the shelf with you know you enjoyed a lot, but at the time, after some years, you can only remember the emotions that it gave you, yet the events that are discussed are rather blurry in your mind... then you have to make the choice of re-reading it or reading something new to experiment new emotions, or revisit emotions in some new circumstances.

When you like a movie, and you want to see it over, it's easier... at most the movie will take about 3 hours... maybe even 9 or 10 if you talk about a trilogy... but a book you know will take you several hours of your week... and so the choice becomes harder... to re-read of read something new... Because we have to invest a lot of time in a book, and time, as we know, is the only one thing that once we use we don't get back... our seconds go by, and they won't come back... so the way we invest them is important... you can always get 10 pesos back, but you will never get back those 10 minutes that you used on the toilet... makes you wonder.

I have re-read some books... tolkien has managed to do that to me, as well as ende... and some books are great because, every time you read them you discover something new... depending on your current status on life, the book has diferent lessons for you to get... Like now, as soon as I get the chance, I want to read momo again... And I know it will have something good to teach me yet again. The funny thing about that book is that, for years, it has gone over more hands that I can remember, and it is the only one book that I have that has done that... and I guess it's because of that it inpires me, and how much driven I feel to "allow" other people to feel those same things... I was going to give the book a nice retirement... it's an old edition and it's starting to wear off, to show the fact that it has been read by probably too many hands... but I just can't seem to let it rest, and there is always someone to lend it to. I wonder of the fate of the book is to one of this days be torn appart and destroyed as it is... In a way it sounds sad... but then again, it sounds great... I guess that if I was a book that's the way I would like to go probably... Just worn out because so many people have read me over the years...

Because a book is not meant to be kept on the shelf... it is meant to be read, over and over, by many minds... books are not nice decorations, they are doors to different places and windows to different parts of your self... they have to keep moving... that is their goal in life... Just like a toy has to be taken out of the box, shown and moved around... a book has to be read over and over... at least I think so...

They say that if you lend a book you have to be willing to let it go for good... books are one of the things people more often tend to never give back for some reason... or they may do after quite some time... I think it's ok... as long as who ever ends up having it is reading it... and passing it on. I think the only one book that I would be sad to lose is that one copy of momo... and mostly because of what it means to me... I can always buy another copy and the content will be the same. It's the essence of this one copy what makes it special... and all the memories that for some odd reason it manages to bring back to me...

It is actually quite odd... but I remember the 1st time I saw it at home when my dad brought it... how odd the cover seemed to me... and how weird it was that the book had the same name that my great dog... (momo was the name of my dog of course)... I remember reading it about 3 or 4 times, and thinking of it as a very cool kids story and then seeing it as a huge critic to modern society... and then just as a reminder of what trully matters in life. I remember a lot of the times in which I let someone borrow it, and the talks we had once they gave it back... I remember thinking that I had lost it for good for a couple of times, once it took over two years for a guy to give it back... but it always came back... It has travelled with me... it was my partner while I was abroad... and it's teachings kind of make me think the way I feel about "work" and the pursue of my dreams... he he he... I sometimes wonder if my dad regrets bringing it home, since it had such an impact on my and my brother, and we are so "out of the system" because of books like Momo...

I think of it now, and think of the girl who is reading it... and the messages she sent because of a cool part she just read... and I think of the next two guys on the line... and I cannot do anything but smile...

It is always a hard answer... because so many books are great... but for some reason, to me, my favorite book is a kids story... Momo keeps reminding me of the eternal struggle agains the gray men, about the magic and wonders of the "normal" world, about how cool tales are, how much you can do by helping others... and how that help is often sometimes just the simple lost art of listening...

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