Book Love: The 5th

Posted by bennardfajardo on February 6, 2013 · 10 Comments 

Over the course of my relationship with Rhena, she has given me three books and it all began during our 3rd year when she started giving me books. The first was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ autobiography Living to Tell the Tale; then Ernest Hemingway’s biography, Hemingway’s Boat, written by Paul Hendrickson; and then, lastly, Albert Camus’ Exile and the Kingdom. As a prudent man, I know that, for the course of our relationship, she will continue on giving me books as gifts during special occasions and I am the kind of man that will complain over such an arrangement.

This time around, on our 5th anniversary, she outdid herself. Not only did she give me three books, she gave me three books that I tremendously love. These are the books that she gave me:

• Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme – A collection of postmodern short stories and a companion piece of Sixty Stories, a book that is included in the LA Times 61 Essential Postmodern Reads. This seems to be a good introduction to the work of Barthelme.
• Object Lessons: The Paris Review presents The Art of the Short Story by The Paris Review – In this book, the Paris Review asked twenty writers to pick one story each from previous issues of the Paris Review and then asked them to introduce the work and give a reason why they think that the short story is a monumental one. As an aspiring writer, this seems like a good book for me.
• The Paris Review of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, The Art of Writing, And Everything Else in the World Since 1953 by The Paris Review – A doorstopper of a book filled with essays, stories, interviews, poems, etc. from different authors. Some of the authors featured here are my favorites such as Auster, Marquez, Vonnegut, Roth, and Ginsberg,

I really like how Rhena gave me two collections from The Paris Review since she knows that I already have one of their collections (The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms). That is why I love her. More than books itself.

Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with Book Love, Books, Donald Barthelme, Forty Stories, The Paris Review