What I read in 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Sorry for my abscense but I've been working hard (remember, I'm a teacher) and writing my short stories and things for Norma Jean Magazine. Not an excuse, I KNOW. Anyway, this year I've discover I love making lists and I applied my new skills to record what I've read and the movies I've watched (next post). So here you have the books I've read:

-The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
-Beloved by Toni Morrison
-Heaven on Earth: 101 Happy Poems ed. by Wendy Cope
-The Machine Stops and the Celestial Omnibus by E.M. Forster
-Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
-The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
-Que caiga el favorito by Ramiro Gairín Muñoz
-Animal Farm by George Orwell
-The Help by Kathryn Stockett
-Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

-Undeletable Scenes by Jeffrey Brown

-Maus by Art Spiegelman

-Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

-The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

-Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier

-Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada by Pablo Neruda
-Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
-Manderley en venta by Patricia Esteban Erlés
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
-The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton
-Casa de Muñecas (Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen
-Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
-La tienda de los suicidas by Jean Teulé
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
-Ten: New Poets ed. by Evaristo & Nagra

-I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

-Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson

-Holocaust Poetry ed. by Hilda Schiff

-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

-Guía de hoteles inventados by Oscar Sipán

And the best one is...written in bold. I strongly recommend Safran Foer. In 2012 I want to read "Everything is Illuminated" by this same author.
And the great discovery this year has been graphic novels. Just take a look at the green titles.

I wish you all a great 2012 full of good stories!

End of the Year (to Andrea)

This is something I found lost in my PC, but very adequate for this moment and for my friend Andrea. Sorry for those who don't speak Spanish, this is just an exception, I promise.

Ya se acaba otro año. Y me pongo a pensar. Y voy atrás en el tiempo, unos meses atrás, y me acuerdo de ella, de cómo se fue. Pero voy más atrás, y los recuerdos cambian, son más felices. Y me doy cuenta de que, conforme más me alejo en el tiempo, mis recuerdos son más felices. Y me doy cuenta de que todo, al final, se reduce a forrar un libro, el libro de mi vida. Conforme más y más paso la mano por el forro, van desapareciendo más burbujas, los pequeños malos momentos, y sólo queda una superficie lisa, los buenos. Pero a veces una pequeña piedra se cuela entre el libro y el forro, y ya no se puede quitar, por mucho que pases la mano e intentes alisarlo. Y me voy unos meses atrás, cuando murió mi abuelita… Y pienso que a veces se nos cuelan en el forro pequeñas piedras que nunca se irán. Nos acostumbramos a pasar la mano y notar ese desnivel en nuestra vida, pero no podemos evitarlo, ni debemos evitarlo. Ya forma parte del forro, del libro, de nuestra vida.

  

No matter how awful this year was to any of you, keep in mind that it's coming to its end and a new one is about to begin.

Happy 2011