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From June 2002 to may 2003, Alberto Manguel set out to reread twelve of the books he likes best, and to share with us, his "gentle readers," his impressions and experiences in doing so. We travel with him as he leaves Canada to set up house in a medieval presbytery in France, visits his childhood home in Argentina and embarks on trips to various other places, always carrying a book in his hand.
The result is an immensely enjoyable collection for every lover of reading -- something between an intimate diary, a collection of literary thoughts, and the best travel memoir. A Reading Diary ranges from reflections on much-loved writers -- Margaret Atwood, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Cervantes -- to seductive introductions to others about whom you will want to know more, such as Sei Shonagon and Adolfo Bioy Casares, simultaneously providing insights into the world of today, its changing seasons and pleasures, its shifting politics and wars -- all illuminated by the great novel he is reading at the time.
A Reading Diary is a walk through a year's worth of best beloved books in the company of an eclectically learned friend. Touching on themes of home and wandering, memory and loss, Alberto Manguel perfectly traces the threads between our reading and our lived experience.
Excerpt from A Reading Diary:
June
Saturday
We have been in ourhouse in France for just over a year, and already I have to leave, to visit my family in Buenos Aires. I don't want to go. I want to enjoy the village in summer, the garden, the house kept cool by the thick ancient walls. I want to start setting up the books on the shelves we have just had built. I want to sit in my room and work.
On the plane, I pull out a copy of Adolfo Bioy Casares's The Invention of Morel, the tale of a man stranded on an island that is apparently inhabited by ghosts, a book I read for the first time thirty, thirty-five years ago. . . .
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
استكشف مكتبتي مثل امرئ عاد إلى وطنه
بعد غياب عقود من السنين
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ربما نحن نقرأ ونلجأ في اللحظات السوداوية إلى الكتب
لنجد كلمات لما نعرفه مسبقا
_________
الكتب ستتبعثر
لكن هذا الذي نشكل نحن جميعا جزءا منه
جزء مهما كان صغيرا
سيبقى موجودا ثابتا تحت النجوم
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لا أحب أن يلخص لي أحد الكتب التي أنوي قراءتها
لا بأس بكل أحداث الكتاب
القراء المتعصبون ،،التلخيص الذي يتضمنه الغلاف الأخير
مدرسو ومؤرخو الأدب من متعتنا في القراءة من خلال وشايتهم بالحبكة
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وطالما تقدم العمر بنا
فإن ذاكرتنا يمكنها أيضا أن تحرمنا
من متعة الجهل بمعرفة ما سيحدث لاحقا
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جناية العالم الوحيدة أنه ترك أطفاله ينمون بلداء
فقراؤه مثل ثيران منهكة وذات عيون رصاصية
ليس لأنهم يموتون جوعا بل لأنهم يجوعون بلا أحلام
ليس لأنهم يموتون بل لأنهم يموتون مثل النعاج
-فاشيل ليندساي
_________
لما يلمحون بأنه رغم كل شيء فإن الحياة في النهاية لها معنى؟
إنهم لا يقدمون حججا
يطلبون أن نصدق فقط
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