I used to drink books when I was a kid and a teenager. One of my favourites were "Detective Kiatosky"'s by Jürgen Banscherus and the "Hole of lost stuff" by Joan Armangué i Herrero. I also remember I liked "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho (although I don't like this writer in general) and I enjoyed thousands of other books before highschool, university, work and life consumed all the energy or time I could spare for reading until last year, 2020, the year of COVID-19.
During the pandemic I joined the #book-club at tails.com which gave me great motivation to read and listen to books and audiobooks so that I could comment it with other tails.com colleagues. With them I got to read:
- Where the crowdad sings by Delia Owens
- The gender games by Juno Dawson
- The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
- The Midningt Library by Matt Haig
- The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo (this one I didn't like so much)
Since then, I've developed a cadence I'm very happy with and have read Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn and am currently reading I'm Malala.
The last autobiography (I'm Malala) should be a must read for everyone alive today. It's atonishing how much strength, courage and perseverance Malala's family had. Theirs was a really hard situation that would be unbearable for any of us. Another example of resilience during a social crisis, one of the hardest ones. We've dealed with COVID-19 but their virus, the virus of pure hell of hate and cold murder hasn't been erradicated and is still alive.
During the pandemic we were depressed for having to self-isolate and not being able to meet at pubs. Under the taliban's regime, people have to sleep for years with the sound of bombs destroying schools or getting news that someone you know being murdered for not wearing their trousers above their ankle or for letting a girl go to school. The topic of school becomes very important in her story because her family get to run one with a lot of sweat and tears, but when things start to go well, talibans destroy all they had built.
All of the context of the book happened while I was starting university in Malaga and the word "crisis" began to be used referring to the world's economy. I was studying Technical Engineering in Telecomunications, a 3-year version of a university degree that was popular by the time, it was hard (and most teachers made sure it stayed difficult and elitist). I chose it because I liked electronics, maths and technology, but computer engineer was considered for nerds? (my peers in high school would say that and I had the personality of a muppet) and industrial engineering required technical drawing which I didn't like in school (although I love prototyping 3D models of things using various tools now).
Reading makes one connect with other realities and come back to ours to understand it with more dimensions. The world is much bigger than our brain can imagine by itself, but once a door is open, one can't stop visiting others.
The next book I'm about to read is another history book "Leyends and tales of Catalonia" written by my admired high school teacher. Thrilled to learn about this topic.
