Books: intro and 1st part

Hello again everybody!

Nobody commented the last post about the group dynamics... I am a bit sad about it, because when I had the cool neocounter I had lots of people reading! Anyway, I hope that you people are still reading what I’m writing.

This post is about books (not a surprise after the title) but I would like to inform you that I have been invited to another interview after the second group dynamics!

I guess that it is going to be a boring post again so I will split it in sundries parts just in case. I am not a professional literary critic but as a reader I have the right to give my opinion. I will tell you about the books that I have read since February. I want to write my opinion about the book, but I would like to explain the context as well, where did I read those books, and the influence that my mood had on the books, and the books on my mood.

I write the author, the title of the book in the language that I read the book and in brackets the original title of the book.

Jonathan Stroud, “El amuleto de Samarkanda” (The Amulet of Samarkand)

It happened to me something funny! I bought first “El amuleto de Samarkanda”, because there is a continuity between them. I was loving it but... at some point I had a sort of dejà vu. What I was reading was too familiar to me. Oh no! There were some missing pages and some other pages were repeated! It is the first time that I see something like that. I had “El ojo del Golem” and I read that one first, before going to Belgium I went to pick a correct version of my book and I read them both fast but with the wrong order.

I would like to compare it with Harry Potter, but I can’t because I haven’t read them. Anyway, I think that it can compete with those but somehow it won’t.

The main character is a boy (then a guy) called Nathaniel and he is learning to be a wizard. His name as a wizard is John Mandrake. He is better than the usual wizards (maybe that’s why he is the main character). He is able to summon powerful spirits like Bartimeo (definitely the funniest character in the books, and only because of him/it it worth read the books!). Nathaniel teachers kind of disrespect him. The main action happens in England and it tells an alternative story where the wizards are powerful and basically rule the world (the Czechs were powerful too, for example) but I don’t want to tell the plot because maybe some of you are going to read it.

In general lines, the first book “El amuleto de Samarkanda” tells how the kid starts to learn magic and becomes the favourite of the powerful wizards. Revenge, luck and extraordinary magic skills bring him to success in his task. And Bartimeo is just hilarious.

Jonathan Stroud, “El ojo del Golem” (Golem’s Eye)

In “El ojo del Golem” John Mandrake is already a young member of the government and again, he is the responsible to solve a huge magic problem. At the same time he fights against the resistance. The point of the book is the girl in the resistance, and the attraction between her and Nathaniel, and who is the bad one? It is a readable book with Bartimeo being hilarious again.

If you like magic but don’t want to read Harry Potter let’s go and pick them!

Aturo Pérez Reverte, “No me cogereis vivo”

When I finished “El amuleto de Samarkanda” in Belgium I didn’t have that much social life (it was in the first week still) and I didn’t have any other book. That is one of the reasons why I started writing my diary (small social life, no internet, no books). Fortunately I met Eric (I’m glad to consider him as a friend now) and I borrowed this book from him.

Arturo Pérez Reverte is a Spanish reporter. He has been for thirty years war reporter and has been around the world seeing... maybe too many things. You probably know him because of Alatriste. The movie with Viggo Mortensen as main character is based in five novels of Arturo Pérez Reverte telling the adventures of that Spanish captain. Anyway, he has been writing lots of things including one article every week in a small (sorry) newspaper.

This book is a compilation of some of those articles. He is definitely the most bitching reporter that I’ve ever read. He has no problems to bitch about the government, the right politicians, the left politicians, the peace movements, the army, the immigrants, the intolerance, the love, the stupid people. If you agree with him you enjoy a lot what he is saying, if you disagree you suffer and start to hate him. But reading that book I learned, thought, laughed, got mad and enjoyed my time!

I would like to read the other article compilations of Pérez Reverte: “Con ánimo de ofender” and “Patente de Corso”. I'm pretty sure that they are great.