Orhan Pamuk. The Museum of Innocence.

It was the happiest moment of my life, though I didn’t know it. Had I known, had I cherished this gift, would everything have turned out differently? Yes, if I had recognized this instant of perfect happiness, I would have held it fast and never let it slip away.

Whatever anybody says, the most important thing in life is to be happy.

Y esta no es de orhan pamuk, pero esta escrita en las primeras páginas del libro: 

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if,when you awoke,you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

37. The Hamlet. William Faulkner.

37. The Hamlet. William Faulkner.407 pages. July 2012.

36. La Sombra del Viento. Carlos Ruiz Safón.

36. La Sombra del Viento. Carlos Ruiz Safón. 569 paginas. Julio 2012.

"El momento en que te paras a pensar si quieres a alguien, ya has dejado de quererle para siempre". Daniel Sempere a Bea

"Un extraño nos ve como somos, no como quiere creer que somos". Beatriz Aguilar a Daniel.

"Creer que realmente todos estamos unidos en una extraña cadena de destinos y azares.  El tiempo me ha enseñado a no perder las esperanzas, pero no a confiar demasiado en ellas. Son crueles y vanidosas, sin conciencia.

"Un relato es una carta que el autor se escribe a si mismo para contarse cosas que de otro modo no podría averiguar".  Hacia teimpo que se pregunta ba si habia perdido la razon. Sabe el loco que esta loco. ¿O los locos son los demal que se empeñan en cnvercerle de su sin razon para salvaguardar su existencia de3 quiemraas.

"Un libro es un espejo que solo podemos encontrar en él lo que ya llevamos dentro, que al leer ponemos la mente y el alma, y que ésos son bienes cada día más escasos". Julian Carax.

"...pero como siempre lo esencial de la cuestion habia sido decidido antes de que empezase la historia y, para entonces ya era tarde."

"Las casualidades son las cicatrices de la vida... no hay casualidades, somos victimas de nuestara inconsciencia" Yo creo que nada sucede por casualidad. Que en el fondo, las cosas tienen su plan secreto, anque nosotros no lo entendamos. .. algo que no podemos entender pero nos posee.

"Este es un mundo de sombras, y la magia es un bien escaso... leer podia hacerme vivir mas y mas intensamente"
Hubiera comprendido que mi devocion por Clara no era mas que una fuente3 de sufrimiento. Quiza por eso la adoraba mas, por esa estupidez eterna de perseguir a los que nos hacen daño.
La gente se complica la vida, como si no fuese suficientemente complicada.

Today. Only Images.

Today. and today...

Today. Hecto Abad Faciolince. Traiciones de la memoria."Le dije que yo era persona de entusiasmos explosivos y largos desencantos, que no era confiable en mi constancia...""La mejor forma en que los perezosos conseguimos no hacer nada es haciendo todas las cosas a la vez. Porque la pereza, al menos mi tipo de pereza, tiene la forma de la hiperactividad... y esa es mi pereza (otro nombre del miedo): la de comprometerme, hacerme responsable, dueño inocultable de mis propios actos.""Siempre he pensado que la pasión literaria, el gusto por imaginar historias, por sumergirnos en ellas y encarnar en personajes que no somos nosotros, tiene un parentesco estrecho con la esquizofrenia, con la demencia de desdoblarse en otro o en otra que no somos, y oír sus voces y sentir su olor y ver su cara, que tal vez no existen. Escribir ficciones tiene algo de locura controlada."

And today..... Julio Cortázar
Piensa en esto: cuando te regalan un reloj te regalan un pequeño infierno florido, una cadena de rosas, un calabozo de aire. No te dan solamente un reloj, que los cumplas muy felices, y esperamos que te dure porque es de buena marca, suizo con ancora de rubíes; no te regalan solamente ese menudo picapedrero que te ataras a la muñeca y pasearas contigo. Te regalan -no lo saben, lo terrible es que no lo saben-, te regalan un nuevo pedazo fragil y precario de tí mismo, algo que es tuyo, pero no es tu cuerpo, que hay que atar a tu cuerpo con su correa como un bracito desesperado colgandose de tu muñeca. Te regalan la necesidad de darle cuerda para que siga siendo un reloj; te regalan la obsesión de a atender a la hora exacta en las vitrinas de las joyerías, en el anuncio por la radio, en el servicio telefónico. Te regalan el miedo de perderlo, de que te lo roben, de que se caiga al suelo y se rompa. Te regalan su marca, y la seguridad de que es una marca mejor que las otras, te regalan la tendencia a comparar tu reloj con los demas relojes. No te regalan un reloj, tu eres el regalado, a tí te ofrecen para el cumpleaños del reloj.

35. Mockingjay.

35. Mockingjay. Suzanne Collins. 390 pages. March 2012.

34. Catching Fire.

34. Catching Fire. Suzanne Collins. 391 pages. March 2012.

33. The Hunger Games.

33. The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins. 367 Pages. March 2012.

What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment?

I look up and find Cinna’s eyes trained on mine. “How despicable we must seem to you,” he says.

Has he seen this in my face or somehow read my thoughts? He’s right, though. The whole rotten lot of them is despicable.

It crosses my mind that Cinna’s calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman.

Great books for medical professionals

Great books for medical professionals

1. The emperor of all maladies; a biography of cancer. Siddharta Mukherjee.

2. My own country; a doctor's story by abraham verghese.

3. Cutting for stone, abraham verghese.

4. El amor en los tiempos del colera.

5. The immortal life of henrietta lacks, rebecca skloot.

6. The house of god, Samuel Shem.

7. Del amor y otros demonios.

8. Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis.

9. Complicatios: a surgeons notes on an imperfect science

and Better. Both by Atul Gawande

10. The spirit catches you and you fall down. Anne Fadiman

32. Africanus. El Hijo del Consul.

32. Africanus. El Hijo del Consul. Santiago Posteguillo. 712 paginas. Marzo 2012.

31. El Cuaderno de Maya.

31. El Cuaderno de Maya. Isabel Allende. 443 paginas. Marzo 2012.

Section on Reading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWwXJT4LA5A

Girl You Should Date.Mark Grist on Girls who read.

What do you go for in a girl? I like a girl who reads... a girl who feeds her addiction for fiction.... for days and days and days she will seat addicted at breakfast... because she is interesting and she is unique... is a girl with passion, wits and dreams...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Adzywe9xeIU

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

In a world ruled by books, with a humble Humpty Dumpty, where books come to life when read by a Doctor, and where eternity is granted. If life is enjoyed does it have to make sense?

Oscar nominated - Short Film Commercial.

http://nonamerah.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/869/

A Girl You Should Date.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=it%27s+not+you+it%27s+your+books&st=nyt

Essay about Love and Literary Taste.

Listing your favorite books and authors is a crucial, if risky, part of self-branding.

reading habits can be a rough indicator of other qualities. “It tells something about ... their level of intellectual curiosity, what their style is.

After all, women read more.

Naming a favorite book or author can be fraught.

sometimes people can end up liking the same things for vastly different reasons.

30. Los Asesinos del Emperador.

30. Los Asesinos del Emperador. Santiago Posteguillo. 1185 paginas. Febrero 2012.

Bienvenidos al mundo de Marco Ulpio Trajano. Esta es una de las novelas históricas mas fieles a la historia. Es excelente para aprender y entretenida a la vez. La novela sigue varios personajes, alrededor del asesinato del emperador Domiciano, y los eventos que precedieron a un gran cambio en las políticas de Roma. El ascenso de un emperador no ciudadano romano sino, nacido en una provincia de Hispania. Es uno de los libros que me hizo recordar la gran importancia de Roma para la formación del mundo actual y como por pequeños eventos de la antigüedad sucedieron los eventos que condujeron el mundo.

Los personajes son muy bien elaborados. Llama la atención que los capítulos de Trajano no son el centro de la historia, sino los relacionados con el emperador en Roma.

"Nunca sabes cuanto duele perder algo que quieres hasta que llega el momento..."

" En este mundo hay que aprender a observar primero y hacer las preguntas adecuadas después. Quien yerra en cualquiera de estos dos puntos esta condenado al sufrimiento propio...

"

29. El Regreso del Joven Príncipe.

29. El Regreso del Joven Príncipe. A.G. Roemmers. 124 paginas. Enero 2012.

Trata de ser como el principito, pero no lo es. Es extraño y es imposible no comparar pero el desarrollo del libro es extraño, si bien tiene varios aspectos que he pensado varias veces y que son importantes recordar, pero a veces suenan muy sentimentales o muy forzados en la conversación entre el príncipe y el autor.

Los temas interesantes recorren entre otros: El vivir en el pasado y en el futuro en vez de en el presente, dilemas entre el ser y tener, la orientación de los medios y los fines, la felicidad y el amor, la actitud de felicidad frente a la vida, el dar y el recibir.

27. Inheritance.

27. Inheritance. Christopher Paolini. 860 pages. October 2011.

Paolini decreased the interest of the history with every book. This one is the proof that the story got bigger than what he imagined and he could not deal with a good development and end for it.

Most of the books is useless, everything resolves in a few chapters and in a stupid way. Galbatorix was so powerful that he was virtually impossible to defeat.

"Was a broad but shallow education superior to one that was narrow but deep?"

"It is easy to be calm when there is nothing to worry about. The true test of your self control, however, is whether you can remain calm in a trying situation."

"Change itself is never good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful."

39. X-Men: First Class. September 2011. Matthew Vaughn.

39. X-Men: First Class. September 2011. Matthew Vaughn.

It was good to see the origin of the old mutants, and the beginning of the friendship between Magneto and Professor X, when they were called Eric and Charles. The movie is not very good and it relies a lot on the special effects more than in the story itself.

38. Bodyguard. September 2011. Siddique.

38. Bodyguard. September 2011. Siddique.

Not as good as the other indian movie I saw. This one was more representative of Bollywood as it had more dancing and more festivities.

The movie is bad, but is interesting to see movies from another culture.

26. A Dance with Dragons.

26. A Dance with Dragons. George R. R. Martin. 1009 pages. September 2011.

Finally a book that changed things and speeded up the situations. This is the second book after "A game of thrones", that it is well paced and almost all chapters have something interesting. The end is excellent and the author doesn't care about killing important characters for the story (that was shown with all the Stark family and Robert). I discovered what is the problem that makes this books so different from TLoTR and others like that, is that it tries to cover so much points fo view that the reader forgets the importance of some things, there are still things that happen in the second book that hasn't come specially relevant to the story but they must be.

The book is good just wait for the remaining two.

37. Aarakshan (Reservation). August 2011. Prakash Jha.

37. Aarakshan (Reservation). August 2011. Prakash Jha.

A cultural experiment that went very well. It is not real Bollywood but is still the first complete indian movie I watch. It was excellent because it touched many aspects I have think about and have some relation to the situation in Colombia. The movie is full of contrasts and mixing of culture, chastes, social classes and differences in education. They show an education based on chastes. The movie has good music and the dancing "just for fun" are funny. That system based on chastes and scores is a really hard system in the way that they see education as the only end, but many people fails and are considered losers. The main aspect of the movie is that the race for education is unequal and that people from low and high chastes start at different levels and for this reason are in disadvantage, and for this they have a "reservation" of spots for higher education. My conclusion stays in that if they have the same opportunities and the same base the reservation has to be abolished. Another problem is the opposite, when the reservation becomes to big and the high classes start to be at disadvantage. The problem is between elitism and equity vs charity and effort. In some way is the same thing in Colombia with the public and the private universities.

36. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. July 2011. David Yates.

36. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. July 2011. David Yates.

It all ends. Probably one of the best movies of the year, probably the best HP movie. I liked it for many reasons:

1) It is the epic conclusion to a story with which I grew up and is exciting to see it represented in "real life". Sentimentally is good to see the end of the story and look backwards to all the series.

2) It was my first movie on IMAX, and the experience is excellent, is the best possible image, surrounded with the clearer sound you can get in the biggest screen I have ever been.

3) The movie itself is fast paced and exciting, the left all the good stuff for the end, with all the battles and the tension moments.

4) The movie is very well done, it has some problems comparing with the books (but is the movie and it always will happen), but for the people who hasn't read the books is perfectly understandable.

5) They spent all the money they needed to get excellent visual effects and great scenes, specially the battles, finally a big battle showing great spells and the final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry.

Of course the movie has some flaws but the good things are much more important than the details.