Hello, this is my first blog on libros.com. This will not be my last blog on libros.com! You will wish that this was my last blog probably!
My objective is to suggest books for native English speakers, and also for Spanish readers who want to improve their English. The books will not be the same! My secondary objective is to entertain you, challenge you and provoke responses from you!
If English is not your native language, in other words if you are Spanish, Romanian, Greek, American etc. and you do not understand anything that I say, please ask me to explain…this is how you improve your English.
As I frequently tell my students, the most important thing with English is the ability to communicate. Perfect grammar is basically unattainable, and subjective, so concentrate on communicating your ideas. With this in mind, I have to say that one of the writers that I consider most overrated is James Joyce. I am intelligent, well read and open minded, but Ulysses fails to communicate anything to me, it is unintelligible and my questions is…what´s the point?
So, my first two recommendations are; for native English speakers, “We need to talk about Kevin” by Lionel Shriver and for non-natives, try High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.
Please respond if you read this, it will make me feel a lot better!
Great article. As I see that this is the first comment, I do not know whether I am the only one who read it or the only one who took the time to comment on it. In any case, thanks.
Do you know that many people (probably) is going to kill for saying “what’s the point of Ulysses?”? HAHAHAHAHA
I am sure that you are right Kalam, but ask me if I care! Haha.
1. Only one person can kill me!
2. I would die knowing that I was right and that this book is the literary equivalent of Lars Von Trier´s drivel, Melancholia, unintelligible and, worse than that, boring! Also, the literary equivalent of improvisational jazz…yawn!!
I hope I provoke some reactions!!