Kesh already mentioned Jorge Luis Borges, but I really don't want you to overlook him. I read him when I was about 16 and I don't think I have ever been as confused/englightned up until then. This thread has inspired me to read him again.

Around the same time as Borges I was reading a Spanish author named Miguel de Unamuno. Anothes one I'd recommend. Philosophical, as well.

I would also recommend Marguerite Yourcenar's short stories. The collection I read was called Oriental Tales.

A more contemporary writer I'd recommend is definitely Jhumpa Lahiri. Her short stories book Interpreter of Maladies is one of my favorites.

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

impressionable books for me have been:

Philip K. Dick - Valis
F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night
Ken Kesey - Sometimes a Great Notion
Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

leiste Borges en espanol o ingles? le hace diferencia?
i'm going to Argentina for the summer and was going to bring Cortazar (Rayuela) and Borges.. which one should I get?

Lo leí en español. Creo que es mucha la diferencia particularmente porque el título de una de sus historias más conocidas es El jardín de de senderos que se bifurcan y en ingles es simplemente tradicido a The Garden of Forking Paths. Pero la verda es que no creo que alla una palabra en ingles que tiene el mismo poder que 'bifurcar.'

No conozco a Cortazar. I am biased.

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

cortazar is a bit gimmicky but axolotls is a good story

hurley's translations of borges are much criticised

i'd like to read alfredo bioy casares but don't know if i can find any translations.

Did you mean Adolfo Bioy Casares? There are translations out there. I haven't read him but during my quick search for his name I found out he wrong a Borges biography titled Borges...1600 pages!

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

thank you for correcting me.

there is also h bustos domecq, which is the name they used when casares and borges wrote together

where in argentina are you going zapatafan?

i'm going to BA for a month and then travel for 2 weeks... (probably to Cordoba because I love it there).
Bueno, thanks for the Borges recommendations Pablita, entonces El Jardin de Senderos que se Bifurcan es lo mejor?

well here's a picture of me and borges in cafe tortoni, avenida de mayo, bsas



the area around los alerces national park is my favourite place, and in and around el bolson

i really love that picture.

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

i should have said borges y yo, but though i like that story my favourites are the early 'baroque' stories of ficciones (i think that is the two collections, garden of forking paths and artifices in one volume) and el aleph, especially tlon uqbar orbis tertias, the library of babel, the immortals and the zahir

yeah, Ficciones has most of his stories? when i read his stuff it was in school so it all came neatly packaged for me. today id have a hard time gathering all of his work...which I am going to try to do, actually. wish me luck.

kesh, do you do spanish? because that would be pretty hot. white boys + spanish. and i dont mean half arsed attempts, but like serious fluency.

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

no hablo español

except i like that an old fashioned way of asking for the bill in chile is to ask for la dolorosa

hah. i was at a cuban restaurant last night. i wish i would have know. i would have called it that!

how much time have you spent in south america? are you still teaching? and this is probably too personal and you dont have to answer it but what resources allow you to travel so often? inheritance? lots of savings?

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"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she told the crowd.

i've been there twice, both times for about a month. because my dad lives there it isn't too expensive, just the flight really the cost of living in argentina seems about a fifth of what it is in the uk. i have no inheritance. yet.

i am not teaching as i am pretty ill at the moment, and until the doctors find out what is wrong and fix it i am unable to do very much. everything is on hold until then.

cool, are you still in BA? i will be there for all of june and part of july. totally looking forward to it!!

no, i'm in england

oh i loooove the story "a temporary matter."

Thanks to whoever suggested 'The Wasp Factory' - that was quite a crazy read

a scanner darkly - philip k dick
rebecca - daphne du maurier