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The list below is composed of some
of my favourite books that I would wholeheartedly recommend to others, many of
which were originally recommended to me. They may not be great literary classics, but
every one had a lasting effect on me, in one
way or another. They appear in chronological order as I read them.
1. Edward de Bono - Lateral Thinking
A great mind-bending book for anyone feeling stuck in a rut or generally seeking inspiration.
I stumbled upon it by accident during my University days and it certainly broadened my mind after fifteen years of stodgy education!
Many of the ideas suggested by the author may already be known to modern readers, though that is probably due to the fact those ideas have been seized upon by others and used in different ways, sometimes under different names.
De Bono is the fellow who tells the story of the man who enters a lift (US: elevator!) punches the button for the tenth floor, gets out and walks up to the twentieth floor, and then asks why? Think laterally.
2. Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime & Punishment
No need to rave on about this one. Few literary critics would deny its qualities.
I identified with the main protagonist not because I was planning a murder but because I was living close to poverty at the
time and had recently read some Nietzche. A cleverly constructed glimpse into the reluctant criminal's mind, it came across to me as totally
believable and I am convinced it was an inspiration for the writer of the Columbo TV series!
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
I was prompted to buy this one after reading a review in some trendy
magazine. It is now perhaps the author's most famous novel so it should need no adulation from me. Sadly, I haven't read any of his other books so I can't compare them.
When I first began to learn Spanish and was looking for a book to read in the original language I borrowed
Cien Años de Soledad from the library. Unfortunately, with the story taking place in a completely different culture to my own the language was too complex for me to assimilate. I reverted to finishing it off in English! Well worth a second read.
Witty, poignant and weird all in one.
4. Samuel Butler - Erewhon
This was another accidental discovery that I am proud of. At the
time, I was looking for a modern critique or potted version of Charles Darwin's
works.
Browsing through the Penguins, I picked this one up by chance and read the blurb.
It claimed it to be something just like that, though contemporary to Darwin and in novel format.
As it turned out, it wasn't quite so much Darwin-oriented but oriented towards Victorian
society and science in general.
The protagonist visits a country where thieves are treated as we would the sick and vice
versa, with some quite compelling argument. The rights of animals are addressed as we learn that the
killing of animals for meat is outlawed in Erewhon. The logic goes one step further with a discussion of the rights of vegetables as living creatures, something which might not seem to bizarre today, but to the society it was addressed to, must have been considered either horrifying or plain ridiculous.
Together with it's sequel, Erewhon Revisited, Erewhon is full of wry comment and I defy anyone not to get to the end without a good laugh.
5. Heinrich Harrer - Seven Years in Tibet
This book works on two levels, if not more. Firstly, as the story of a drafted German mountaineer's escape across the Himalayas from a British POW camp in
India, it is a tale of adventure and endurance in a strange land.
Secondly, after Harrer's arrival in "civilisation" and his recovery from crossing one of the most inhospitable places on earth (physically and bureaucratically) he finds himself in a different world to the madness he left behind in Europe -
Lhasa, the capital of
Tibet - and so it becomes a comment on the way of life in western civilisation.
Harrer becomes elevated to one of the most respected people in the country, a stark contrast to the lowly position he was in earlier in the
book, giving it also a romanticism, something that was embellished in the film
made of the book starring Brad Pitt.
The otherworldliness of the story resembles Butler's Erewhon, but in this case, the story is true. Equally, like Butler, Harrer revisited Tibet many years later and tells that tale in
Return to Tibet.
6. P.D. Ouspensky - In Search of the Miraculous
As a child I had a very mathematical mind. After reading De Bono's "Lateral Thinking" I experimented with a number of different authors who supposedly had a mathematical bias to their writing, dipping in and out of several per week without getting too engrossed in anything.
Ouspensky was one of them, but I never really gave him a fair chance until many
years later when working in a secondhand bookshop. I came upon a first edition of
Tertium Organum, bought it and, obscure though it was, found it to my
taste.
New Model of the Universe and, later, In Search of the
Miraculous continue the themes begun in Tertium, the last of the three
being heavily influenced by G.I. Gurdjieff.
7. J.R.R. Tolkien - El Señor de Los Anillos
I was always put off reading The Lord of the Rings owing to its length and its
popularity. However, following recommendations I went to the movies to see The
Fellowship of the Ring by Peter Jackson.
Knowing of my search for a suitable book to read in Spanish, my teenage children elected to buy me the set of three books in
Spanish for my birthday. Determined to do them justice I spent between 20-40 minutes each day reading the first book with the help of a Spanish-English dictionary.
Progressing at a rate of about 2 pages a day I clocked up 6 months reading the one book.
Meanwhile, The Two Towers was released in the cinema.
The second volume proceeded at an equally slow pace to begin with, but despite Tolkien's highly descriptive style, I finished
it in two months.
I devoured the third volume in four days, such was the power of the story and my determination to get ahead of Peter Jackson!
After The Return of the King was released I re-read the story in English. I was amazed at how much I must have understood the first time round which endeared me all the more to
the Spanish edition, as if I were the first person to read the story.
8. Ken Follett - Pillars of the Earth
This book has so much going against it that it is a wonder I ever read it. Ken Follett is known for his
adventure/spy/war thrillers, not high on my choice of reading material. Equally, historical family dramas are not my kind of
thing either, so the knowledge that Follett had written one in Pillars
was even less encouraging. Long novels, in this case over 1000 pages, are usually even more
offputting, so it took something special to get me past my own prejudices and to
give it a try.
I became aware of it when it polled high in the BBC's Top 100 books of all time.
Then my daughter became enthusiastic after she had
been recommended it by a school friend.
It's hard to nail down what is so good about this book, but I think I experienced the widest possible range of
emotions whilst reading it. Furthermore, despite its setting in English history, I never knew what might happen next.
A surprise from start to finish.
The Spanish translation, Los Pilares de la Tierra, is one of the most requested books by customers at The Book Cupboard.
9. Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
This book is another that took me by surprise. It was recommended by a customer who I had never met before when he returned it to me after reading it.
I needed something not too bulky to carry on an overseas flight and lacking inspiration I took up his recommendation.
At first I was disappointed, as it began rather like another dreary literary romantic novel (such as those I have read by Anita
Brookner, Virginia Woolf and Andre
Gide to my dismay) but a little perseverance paid off and I couldn't have been more wrong in the end.
There is romance in the story, but that is overshadowed by the writer's
captivating description of events during the first World War, particularly the Battle of the Somme.
10. Jasper Fforde - Well of Lost Plots
Never judge a book by its cover, so they say. Nonsense, I say. My daughter bought Fforde's
The Eyre Affair because of the dodo on the cover. Her interest followed through three sequels until she recommended I give the first one a go.
Set in a slightly fantastical parallel world to our own, it was refreshing to
find a female "hero" in what would normally be a male role. Thursday Next is a literary
detective and it is her job is to keep the lid on crime related to books and literature.
Sounds odd, you might think. What kind of crime can be committed relating to books? I can't begin to explain, but if you have any interest in literature past or present, and a sense of humour bordering on the Monty Python, this series of books is well worth reading.
Well of Lost Plots is the third of the series of four and, to my mind, the most inventive and ingenious. It won't make complete sense without reading the earlier books in the series, but I'm sure it could stand alone and still be an excellent story.
Bestselling
books
From an article by Kevin Allcoat, submitted & printed
in "Actual", local
newspaper, July 2003
Choosing
and then selling books for an english-language bookshop in Catalunya is not an
easy task. An international clientele expect to find all kinds of books, so the
biggest range as possible has to be stocked to try to meet all needs.
However,
one book that was recently released worldwide has proved that it is possible to
cross all the language barriers. Produced solely in the english language, Harry
Potter & the Order of the Phoenix has outsold everything, everywhere, of
late.
The
launch of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series was heralded all over the
world. Stocks disappeared off shelves almost as quickly as
they arrived, by the truckload, and a certain internet trader broke the
e-business record by taking orders for over one million copies of the same book
within 24 hours of publication.
For
the Book Cupboard, Lloret de Mar, the top five selling books in the last month,
have all been written by J.K. Rowling. The first four titles in the Harry Potter
series (all available in paperback) have been hot on the heels of the fifth
title in terms of sales. Young and old are trying to catch up on the phenomenom.
Buyers have been native-speakers of many different European languages, though we
currently only stock English language copies.
But
what about the rest?
Another
children’s book has ridden high in terms of sales: Where’s Dennis? At
3€, the simple text and fun illustrations have proved a hit with english and
spanish children alike.
We
sell a selection of dictionaries and phrasebooks at the shop, and a 2€ bargain
with the title Spanish Verbs has proved a steady seller since its arrival
in April.
A
discounted title by the name of Barcelona and Catalonia (published 1991,
price 2,50€) started out very strongly in the early part of this year but has
faded as our selection of other travel titles has improved, notably those
produced by Lonely Planet.
We
have also sold a good number of David Searl’s You And The Law in Spain.
This is a book aimed primarily at English people interesting in moving to the
country, and who want to learn a little more about what they are letting
themselves in for. The latest edition was updated in March 2003.
Perhaps
the strangest individual top tenner is The Holy Qu’ran. Another
bargain book at 4,95€, it has proved the most asked for non-fiction title to
date.
Secondhand
classic fiction by the likes of Dickens, Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll still
sells well, along with modern rivals like John Grisham and Ruth Rendell. No one
title excels because of restraints on space in a small ‘local’. However, a
worthy mention must be made of Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, which
has earned its shelf space by selling each time almost as soon as it has hit the
shelves.
In
three months’ time the summer will be over. Children will be back at school
and thoughts may be turning towards Christmas. We shall be taking orders for
anyone wanting to give a book this year. So who knows how different the top ten
will be?
- Harry
Potter & The Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling (Hardback, 25,50€)
- Harry
Potter & The Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling (Paperback, 9,00€)
- Harry
Potter & The Prisoner of Azkhaban – J.K. Rowling (Paperback, 9,00€)
- Harry
Potter & The Philosophers Stone – J.K. Rowling (Paperback, 9,00€)
- Harry
Potter & The Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (Paperback, 10,50€)
- Where’s
Dennis? (Paperback, 3€)
- Barcelona
and Catalonia – P. Gogarty (Paperback, 2,50€)
- Spanish
Verbs – Geddes & Grosset (Paperback, 2,00€)
- The
Holy Qu´ran – A. Yusuf Ali (trans.) (Paperback, 4,95€)
- You
And The Law in Spain – D. Searl (Paperback, 19,50€)
You can order any of
these books direct from us by placing your order online at BUSCO
BOOKS
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TopTen bestselling authors at The Book
Cupboard (Sept. 2006)
Dan Brown - author of The Da Vinci Code
Agatha Christie - in any language
Josephine Cox - romantic novelist
John Grisham - legal thrillers
Joan Jonker - romantic novelist
George Orwell - semi-local author
James Patterson -crime fiction
Ian Rankin - crime fiction
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter series
Oscar Wilde - poet & playwright
TopTen non-fiction subjects most
oft-sought at The Book Cupboard (Sept. 2006)
1.Antoni Gaudí - eg.
Gaudí, the Complete Buildings (Taschen 25th Anniversary)
2. Phrasebooks - especially Guía Práctica de Conversación:
Español-Inglés (Editorial Arguval)
3. Salvador Dalí - eg Dalí 1904-1989 (Taschen 25th
Anniversary)
4. George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia (Penguin Modern
Classic)
5. Catalan
Dictionaries - especially Diccionari Català-Angles /
English-Catalan Dictionary (Diccionaris de l'Enciclopèdia)
6. Friedrich Nietzche - especially Thus Spake Zarathustra (Wordsworth
Classics)
7. History of Catalunya - e.g. John Payne's Catalonia History
& Culture
8. English-Spanish Dictionaries
9. Barcelona guide - especially MIchelin map
10. Spanish Civil War & History
And finally, a TopTen list of alternative
worlds well worth a visit, if only in your mind:
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy;
etc
Edwin Abbott - Flatland
Samuel Butler - Erewhon
Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland; Alice Through the
Looking Glass
C.S. Lewis - Narnia series (including The Lion, The Witch
& the Wardrobe)
Thomas More - Utopia
Plato - Republic
George Orwell - 1984
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials trilogy
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