People unobtrusively toting purchases at the Guadalajara International Book Fair Monday evening were pressed to reveal the contents of their bags for the edification of Guadalajara Reporter readers who might want to know what is hot reading in Spanish this year.
In general, this was a well-educated sampling of men from approximately age 25 to 45, and they didn’t include anyone from the long line of younger people waiting to have their books signed by one of Monday’s featured writers, Colombian-Mexican novelist and filmmaker Fernando Vallejo.
Many of these men of course purchased novels to read for pleasure. (See below.) But some, like a 40-ish Guadalajara veterinarian named Manuel bought nonfiction titles related to their professions, such as, in his case, books on natural and organic processes. These included the Spanish titles “Agricultura Organica” (Organic Agriculture) and “La Casa Ecologica” (The Ecological House), and tomes on parasites, natural treatments for animals and hydroponic growing.
Likewise, 40-ish Gerardo Corona, a Guadalajara office worker and prospective PhD student, said he purchased a book on teaching economics, the field he will study.
And similarly, 30-ish Eduardo Rojas, of Mexico City, bought three titles on philosophers — Nietsche, Freud and Foucault — which he plans to use in the future when he gets advanced education in philosophy. (He already has a degree in political science, he explained.)Corona also was carrying bags full of books purchased for his 12 nieces and nephews, including Winnie the Pooh in Spanish. He noted that at the FIL books for youngsters are notably cheaper than at bookstores, and that there are specials on books bought in quantities larger than one.
In league with all the aforementioned men, Jose Jaime Lopez, a university professor of Asian history and culture, bought some professional books for himself and children’s books for young relatives, in his case a book on Chinese civilization and a collection of Arthur Conan Doyle stories, translated into Spanish, for his son. He too noted that books at the FIL are generally a bargain.
Many GR readers are interested in novels and nonfiction for adults and so were our small group of Mexican readers queried at the FIL. Guadalajara dentist and university professor Enrique Romero Martin was overflowing with preferences in these genres. On Monday, he had purchased ten books on the topic of the Mayas, including the thriller “Testamento Maya” (The Maya Testament) by Steve Alten and “El Barco Maya” (The Maya Ship) by Antonio Ramos.
This dentist also bought the thriller “Pendulo Foucault” (Foucault’s Pendulum) by the ultra-popular Umberto Eco.
He also bought and highly recommended “A La Sombra del Angel” (In the Shadow of the Angel, English translation available) by Kathryn Blair, a historical novel sometimes called the Mexican “Gone With the Wind.” The book’s creation and the author’s life (Blair is an American born in Cuba who lived much of her life in Mexico City) are inextricably intertwined with the story of its exceptional heroine, Antonieta Rivas Mercado, the author’s mother-in-law and relative of an architect in charge of Mexico City’s famed Angel of Independence statue, who until her suicide in 1931 worked to transform Mexican society, arts and education.
University employee Gerardo Jaime bought and recommended another historical novel, “El Sueno del Celta” (The Celt’s Dream, as yet untranslated into English) by the well known Peruvian and Nobel prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa. The book, sometimes compared to Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” is another complex work involving British diplomat Roger Casement, who exposed systematic, colonial torture in the Congo and Amazon jungles and was ultimately convicted and hanged for treason by the British.
Besides this book, Jaime snagged several personal finds at the FIL — a Peruvian cinema magazine, a film about Spanish children who were sheltered in Mexico during the Spanish Civil War, and a DVD with interviews of the three-time Olympic champion Cuban volleyball team. He also purchased “something like an iPad” for 1,200 pesos — a device called Papyre containing at least 100 books in Spanish.
The FIL continues through Sunday, December 4 at Expo Guadalajara. See www.fil.com.mx.