#god i couldnt even include nero corleone

[fipindustries]

i just want to talk about books i love

a list of my favourite childhood books. that is to say: books i read in my childhood, not necesarily children’s books. these are the books i read obsessively over and over until they were absolutely worn down and cracked. for ovbious reasons im not including harry potter into the mix

*journey to the center of the earth - jules verne 

i think every amab who was interested in books and sci fi read jules verne at some point in their lives. this was one of his most outlandish premises but the dry naturalist way in which he descrives the wonders the characters encounter and the dangers of survival they come across (beautifully rendered by  Édouard Riou) made me go back to it again and again.

*codex - lev grossman

turns out the guy who wrote the magicians did other things in his past as well. this book was fascinating to me because, out of all the books in this list, i think this is the one where no genre or supernatural elements occur. is about a banker who spends his first vacation in years unpacking and organizing the books of a private collection which leads him into an in depth quest to find one incredibly obscure middle age text that was lost to history. and yet lev manages to descrive all of this in such a wacky, whimsical tone than even descriptions of a guy playing a weird avant garde videogame are enthralling

*deception point - dan brown

i claimed time and again that dan brown is a sci fi writer trying to pretend he is a historical writer, this is the proof. this was the book he wrote before angels and demons, before he cemented himself with robert langdon forever. electoral drama, goberment conspiracies, cientific discoveries in the artic, weird near future sci fi tech, aaron sorkin level writing, dan brown second and last female protagonist, alien fossils trapped in meteorites. this book has everything

*amazing space - ann jeanette campbell

another thing related to space, the joke about how every kid when they reach age has to choose what they are going to bo obsessed with, dinosaurs - bugs - space. guess which one i choose. thanks to this book i passed most of my science tests with flying colors.

this is the one of three non fiction books in this list. one of those books that you dont really read sequentially but rather that you just jump all over the place, back and forth, finding weird little wonders wherever  you go. this was the book that introduced me to the concept of dark matter, neutron stars, the cosmic background radiation, quasars. it showed me that reality is way weirder than i expected and that there are truly strange things out there.

*the sorcerer’s companion - allan & elizabeth kronzenk

i said i wouldnt mention harry potter but i can’t not mention this. my first earnest introduction to the world of actual historical magic and myth as it was practisced in the real world. it showed me how magic actually looked in the past, how it worked, what were the actual beliefs, myths and superstitions of people and how they were far more eccentric and peculiar and off kilter than anything rowling could come up with.

it was the book that made me unironically practisce numerology and astrology and reading tea leaves when i was a kid. it was also the perfect gateway drug to the kind of weird shit alan moore would preach at me when i was a teenager/young adult. fantastic history lesson packaged in an endearing way

*between nothing and eternity - roberto pettinato

pettinato is a stand up comic from argentina, one i am fond of. this book collects random thoughts, long digressions, short stories, stand up sets and other tangential observations that the guy made across his carrer. an incredibly eclectic book that has way too much fun playing around with typography. it replicated in an eerie way (even though at the time i couldnt possibly have known) the feeling of scrolling on tumblr and coming across the effort posts and deranged shitposts made by your mutuals. another eerie thing is how pettinato’s writing style is so incredibly good at conveying his own speech patterns, you cannot help but read this book in his voice, never before or after speech, cadence, delivery, timing, emphasis and tone was so perfectly conveyed in writing.

*the warm-up battle - marcelo figueras

i said more than enough about this book already. my favourite book of all time.

*the girl who loved tom gordon - stephen king

one of kings lesser known books, also the first book by stephen king i ever read. and much like the tip of the iceberg, much like the smallest tendril from the great eldritch beast that reaches from beyond time into my mind, i was amazed and astounded by it without even suspecting that there was so much more where that came from.

this was probably the first book i ever read with a female protagonist. whats more, a female protagonist of my age. again, as someone who was socialized as a boy, i was surprised at how relatable, how close, how immediate the conection to her was. she did things in her mind that i thought only i did. now the title may make you think this is some cute teen romance book or whatever. its actually and incredibly raw and terrifying story of survival, about a girl who got lost in the woods for days and days with nothing but her portable radio (that i would picture as the little pink walkman i had as a kid) and the prescence of something wrong, following her in the woods

*lessons in fear - diana shaw

and while on the subject of female protagonists, this is a practically completly unkown little teen novel where you follow a teenage girl who decides to become a private investigator and find out who has been pulling (potentially lethal) pranks on the most hated teacher at school. yet another book that surprised me by how much i related to the female protagonist as a kid, specially considering it was probably the only book i ever read where menstruation is not only brought up as a thing that exists but on top of that is brought up in a completly non chalante way as in yeah, whatever, it happens, its really annoying, ugh, i forgot my tampons, what a drag. which blew my 11 year old mind

the paris enigma - pablo de santis

speaking of murder mystery, this is The murder mystery novel. the one muder mystery novel that is all murder mystery novels that have ever existed. the ultimate tribute to the genre. it’s set in the late 1800′s, the eiffel tower is about to be completed for the world’s fair and the great twelve detectives, a world spanning organization composed by the best detectives of the world, are getting together. with them there are their adlateres, their assistants, their watsons. among the adlateres we follow one kid, the most recent addition to the group, someone who grew up reading detective stories his entire life and now had to prove himself as a worthy addition to the team. much like worm is the ultimate superhero story and worth the candle is the ultimate rpg isekai, this one is the ultimate crime novel

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extra material

honorary mentions, books that i only read once as a kid and yet they still had a profound impact on my mind:

*the words - jean paul sartre.

the guy talks about his childhood, i had this idea that the guy was a dense and complex philosopher but his writing ended up being very enjoyable and relatable

*the invention of morel - adolfo bioy casares

the proof that latin america could create some amazing science fiction

*the eight - katherine neville

im honestly surprised not more people are talking about this one. dan brown done right. or more precisely the davinci code is katherine neville done wrong

*the metamorphosis - franz kafka

i was surprised at how straight forward the concept was explored, it almost felt like speculative fiction

*trafalgar - angelica gorodischer

the other proof that argentina could create some amazing science fiction, and make it but gustingly funny

*blindness - jose saramago

yet another example in this list of a writer that i expected to be dense and incomprehensible and dull and yet surprised me at how straightforwardly it explored a genuenly fascinating idea

*locked room - paul auster

and this is the one book that breaks that trend. i have no idea what the hell this book is about. i remember it was faintly disturbing to read. it was the book that started my obsession with thoroughly filing and archiving everything i create