Books: “Reading experiences”, by bonzopoe.

I just finished reading 'Rescue Distance' by Argentine writer Amanda Schweblin, and although the ending frustrated me a bit, perhaps because I suddenly stumbled upon it after reading 3 pages when I thought I had more to go, I thought the book was excellent. Had I known I was 3 pages from the end, I would have finished it last night, and I'm sure the experience would have been different and more satisfying.

And this is because the book is absorbing, and almost without you realizing it you suddenly seem to be living what it tells you, and what it tells you is distressing and confusing, and it is practically impossible to keep your head from spinning and thinking while you read, because you never know 100% if you understand well what you are reading, which makes the reading experience something very interesting and captivating, subjugating.

To overcome my small frustration at having stumbled upon the ending in this unexpected way, I started reading something that some of the literary critics link to the book, and that is the work of writer Amelia Gray, and what better way to start than with her first book 'AM/PM', which turned out to be a book of really short stories.

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Since English is not my native language, I can't fully appreciate her use of language, and her writing style, at least in this book, since it is one of those in which form is very important, and although I have no problem reading in English, it has word games and meanings that escape me.

But beyond that, here my reading experience was very different, because this author uses very few words to tell a story, and suddenly I found myself immersed not in what she writes, as when I was reading Schweblin, but in how she writes it, I was studying what I was reading instead of feeling part of it.

I found it so interesting in this sense, that I considered that I could not do a casual reading of the book, but had to sit down and read it at another time, with notebook in hand to take notes and write down the ideas that it would surely provoke in me to develop later.

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Having half an hour of time to kill, before going into my next class, I looked on my phone for something else to read, and as we are starting March, I decided to read something written by an Asian author. For those who are very fond of reading, it won't escape the fact that it has become a trend in reading circles and book clubs to read Asian authors in this month. And the book chosen was 'Membranes' by Chinese author Chi Ta-wei.

The book caught my attention because it is classified as queer science fiction, something I have never read before, and in fact I didn't even know it existed as a genre, and after reading an introduction by its translator into Spanish, my native language, in which he explains some criteria he used to do his job, and which are important to understand the reading, I have had a very different experience than I expected.

At least in the few pages I've read, I found the reading to be very relaxing and even sweet, which really surprised me, and if the book continues on this path, it looks like this will be one I will enjoy very much.

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In the span of just over an hour, I experienced very different things, with three different authors, from different countries, languages, literary genres, and even different preferences. And that got me thinking about how reading impacts us in the most diverse ways imaginable.

As far as I can remember I have never cried with a book, as has happened to many, but boy have I laughed and cackled while reading. If I do a quick review of my recent reading experiences, this is confirmed, and it's something I hadn't noticed before.

It seems that books are like people. Some amuse you, others make you think, some you kill time with, while others you turn to for advice, etc. And as happens after spending time with someone, books influence us in ways we are not aware of.

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Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are, would be perhaps the adage to bring up here. And if I think about it a bit I read almost everything, and just as my musical tastes are incomprehensible to some, I suppose the variety of what I read is too, and that, leaving egos and false modesty aside, seems to me a virtue.

And you, what do you read and how is your reading experience? I'd love to read about it in the comments. Thanks so much for reading me, and see you next time.

Thank you very much for reading this post and dedicating a moment of your time. Until next time and remember to leave a comment.