Welcome to Litsy!

My lunch breaks have been pretty busy recently, and I probably went about 2 weeks without reading at home, so I'm pretty happy with what I still got in last month. Lots of graphic novels during down time at work 😁

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, so it is sometimes jarring to read a book that is so incredibly real and human. Senhor Jose works at the Central Registry, which records citizens birth and death. His side hobby is collecting records of famous people, but one day he finds the record of "an unknown woman" stuck to the back of a famous person's file. And so begins his quest to learn about her and break the mundanity of his bureaucratic existence.

“When all is said and done, what is clear is that all lives end before their time.”
― Jose Saramago, Blindness

I am spending a lot of time lately with small press or non-North American writers. This book was fantastic - set in Angola during the revolution, it is the stories of a number of interconnected characters told in a manner similar to a short story. I enjoyed how we saw various sides of the conflict through different eyes, and the disillusionment of revolutionaries as time passes.

#DaysDevotedTo Day 2: #AllSouls with Pessoa. Here is my book haul from Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon, the world‘s oldest operating bookstore in the world, according to the Guinness World Records: https://wp.me/pDlzr-qPD

#DaysDevotedTo Portuguese #Authors while I was in Lisbon a few weeks back - at the ostensibly oldest running bookstore in the world, according to Guinness World Records - Livraria Bertrand founded in 1732.

I read this many years ago well before COVID and as with all pandemic books I cannot help but compare to what we have experienced the last few years. This book is much worse than what I experienced, and while I don't agree with every thing my government did, but yikes the government Saramago has created here is chilling. This is an impressive and brilliant look at humanity. Often harsh (check TWs) but incredibly realistic. 👇

Cansada del amor de sí, amó a otro.

I reread a handful of stuff each year! I probably would if I read less but I always think after 100 new books I should be able to reread some favorites. I also have a terrible memory so often it feels like I am reading it for the first time 😹

Some I have reread the most -
Persuasion -Austen
Shadow of the Wind - Zafon

This year I plan to reread some Saramago books I am most looking forward to a third read of Death With Interruptions.