With Venezuela only 13 months away, I've been scanning the bookshelves for new reading material. However, Venezuela does not make the newspapers, NPR or the best seller lists nearly as often as China does. That could certainly change over the next 3 years, but right now the picking is pretty slim.
I did start off with a classic, though. The Lost World was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912. The book is fabulous - an adventure tale of British gentlemen in the early 1900s. I enjoyed so many things about the novel, one of them being the chance to get inside the heads and mindsets of the explorers, back when exploring meant forgoing safety and your possible return just to see what was out there. The setting of Doyle's lost world is said to be inside of Venezuela. Interestingly, parts of Venezuela are still said to be relatively untouched. I doubt there is much fact in the novel, but it is a wonderful read and does paint an exciting and exquisite picture of the physical place we will be living.
However, I couldn't find much else. I do have a short reading list, but I am open to all suggestions as well. Until then, I have broadened the category to include Colombia as well. Colombia and Venezuela share both a border and a history. Simon Bolivar is history's great man for both nations. Also, a prolific and Nobel prize winning author writes from and about Columbia. "Believed by many to be one of the world’s greatest writers, Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American 'Boom.'" I'm guessing that the here referenced boom is in Spanish language literature - and although I am working through Rosetta Stone's Latina American Spanish program, I'm not yet reading great works of literature. However, Márquez has been translated into English and one of his books now sits on my bedside table.
I admit to being a little intimidated. The General in His Labyrinth been sitting there for a while. Currently, it sits behind World War Z, a much lighter and far less intimidating book. But now that I've posted this, I'm sure I'll read the Nobel Prize winning author next.
I did start off with a classic, though. The Lost World was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912. The book is fabulous - an adventure tale of British gentlemen in the early 1900s. I enjoyed so many things about the novel, one of them being the chance to get inside the heads and mindsets of the explorers, back when exploring meant forgoing safety and your possible return just to see what was out there. The setting of Doyle's lost world is said to be inside of Venezuela. Interestingly, parts of Venezuela are still said to be relatively untouched. I doubt there is much fact in the novel, but it is a wonderful read and does paint an exciting and exquisite picture of the physical place we will be living.
However, I couldn't find much else. I do have a short reading list, but I am open to all suggestions as well. Until then, I have broadened the category to include Colombia as well. Colombia and Venezuela share both a border and a history. Simon Bolivar is history's great man for both nations. Also, a prolific and Nobel prize winning author writes from and about Columbia. "Believed by many to be one of the world’s greatest writers, Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American 'Boom.'" I'm guessing that the here referenced boom is in Spanish language literature - and although I am working through Rosetta Stone's Latina American Spanish program, I'm not yet reading great works of literature. However, Márquez has been translated into English and one of his books now sits on my bedside table.
I admit to being a little intimidated. The General in His Labyrinth been sitting there for a while. Currently, it sits behind World War Z, a much lighter and far less intimidating book. But now that I've posted this, I'm sure I'll read the Nobel Prize winning author next.
No comments:
Post a Comment