Memories (and you may all go and decide I'm a nerd now- I'm still a proud one.)

In these past days, two unrelated yet very related memories came back to me.

First one I remembered the other day (I actually think it was yesterday, but my perception of time is so very messed up lately, I can never know). I was FB texting the Firetruck (that annoying being- I can only picture his stupid perpetual smile, but everytime I talk to him he is crossed, or sarcastic, or sad, or an emo, or not happy in any other way. And he is too amazing for that shit)and at one point he said the following:

"[P]oor you, spending your time in an studyship you chose in order to find a job you love."

And it reminded me. it remimded me of my 20 year old "self" (who was barely a self at all), that miserable thing, being put to study English without even being asked about it. Of course I didn't say a thing, because, well, I do love what I am doing, but I remembered, I felt. I felt the urge to escape that life people were shaping for me without my consent, I remembered hating it and everybody so much.

That's my first memory.

My second memory arised after the community reunion this morning, or maybe two weeks ago. There exists this omnipresent talkative neighbour (she tends to be there when my mother's reserve is saving me some embarrasment, and likes to compensate), and my birthday is about to come, so of course she started relating her -very reshaped- memories of my childhood. And it brought my own back.
She was narrating how much I loved being cared for by her daughter and how happy I was at those times, and it made me picture myself being happy while I did that that made me happy.
I... developed writing systems, inventing their symbold, deciding what sounds were and were not represented (for they were writing systems for imagined languagues), and which ones were to be written in dygraphs.
I also read enciclopaedia entries and investigated the evolution of letters and their different shapes in the écritures of old times. I looked at them and enjoyed the fascination they made me feel.
I asked my mom to write things for me using greek letters so that I could decipher it.
I read Asterix comics in French to try and grasp some of the meaning.
I searched the internet for a glossary of Old Irish words (who wan't modenr languages when there is obsolete ones abound?) and memorised them.
I read an old Latin diccionary and copied down words that I found interesting.


I lived for them, for all the words in all the languages, for all the ways in which both changed, chifted, evolved, all this time.

I quote Christabel LaMotte now.

"Words have been all my life, all my life."

Premio Blog Original

Hace ya un porrón de tiempo de que Saiko me otrorgó el Premio Blog Original (estoy orgullosísima y podéis ver el icono correspondiente a la derecha). Ya se lo agradecí, pero dejé pendientes mis responsabilidades al respecto.

Como receptora del premio tengo que nombrar a quién me lo concedió (ya lo he hecho), compartir una frase que me defina especialmente y conceder el premio a 10 blogs.

Mi frase es "L'enfer, c'est les autres" de Jean Paul Sartre, que se traduce como "el infierno son los demás" (aunque en su contexto se refiere a un "los demás" específico, en el mío es la gente en general XD).

Y ahora vienen mis premios. No van a ser 10 blogs los premiados, porque quiero atenerme a un criterio de originalidad real, y por alguna otra razón también (complicada de explicar).

1.: Aunque ya lo tiene, se lo devuelvo: Aspie-Chan , de Saiko.
2.: Un libro... es otra historia , de M. Me parece una iniciativa genial.
3.: Desde mi libertad
4.: Diario de una (casi) maestra descubriendo el mundo, también de M. : siempre que paso, aprendo algo.
5.: El sonido de la hierba al crecer , de Anabel
6.: Hasta la luna ida y vuel...TA (5. y 6. porque con madres así, da gusto)
7.: ·Make Up Your Mind· , de Cinnamon Cloud. Un blog de maquillaje que a veces sorprende, y siempre entretiene. No me pasa con muchos.

Y con eso están todos.
Los premiados tienen que:
 Nombrar a quein les dio el premio
 Compartir una frase que les defina
 Premiar  10 blogs
 Comentar en el último post de los blogs a los que han premiado.

Y listo, Calisto.

Reto: 30 días de libros. Día 1: tu libro favorito.

Ya explicó Nominatissima lo difícil que es escoger un libro favorito (o un "loqueseaqueteguste" favorito.

Así que no sé. No tengo ni idea!

Me pasé toda la adolescencia diciendo que "El Elfo Oscuro", de R.A. Salvatore, era mi libro favorito. Todavía me encanta, pero el cariño que le tengo (y también el que le tenía entonces) se lo tengo más por ser un símbolo en mi vida que como obra literaria. Lo que sea.

Y eso es lo que pasa con la mayoría de los libros que me encantan. No me encantan por el argumento, los personajes o el lenguaje sino por razones externas, porque los relaciono con experiencias personales, y no me parece que ése sea el método para elegir un libro favorito.

Y para colmo, tengo una cosa especial con los libros que me hace disfrutar de todo lo que leo, o si no, no lo leo, y tengo una estantería llena de libros justo detrás de mi escritorio y miro entre los títulos y ninguno sobresale por haberme gustado más que el resto.

Pero.

El libro que he recomendado a más gente los últimos años es "El Cuento Número Trece" de Diane Setterfield (ojo, que recomiendo la versión original, no creo que a un libro como ése le haya sentado bien el español), así que lo voy a elegir como mi favorito.

Lo que más me gustó fue el lenguaje, la forma en la que está escrito, y el ambiente.

Leo acompañada de una libreta y un boli desde que leí "El Mundo de Sofía" a los 16, y anoto las cosas que me llaman la atención, o las ideas que me vienen a la mente al leer una cierta frase. Anoté toneladas de cosas al leer "El Cuento Número Trece". Me cautivaron las palabras: las imágenes, las metáforas. Me cautivó la tragedia. Me cautivó el hecho de que la historia estuviera aislada de todo y que no echara en falta nada mientras leía.

Cuando lo leí por segunda vez encontré alguna cosilla que no me gustó (sobre todo el tratamiento que se le da al personaje de Adeline) pero la primera vez no hubo nada, nada que rompiera el hechizo. Me empapé del universo Angelfield como no me he empapado de ningún otro.

day 1: your favorite book

Nominatissima already explained how difficultit is to choose a favorite book (or a favorite whatever you’re into-).

So, I don’t know. I ain’t got an idea!

I spent my teen years saying that “The Dark Elf” by R.A. Salvatore was my favorite book. I still love it a lot, but I love (and  loved) it more as a symbol in my life than as a piece of literature. Whatever.

And that’s what happens with most of the books I love. I don’t love them because of the plot and the language but because of external reasons, because I link them with personal experiences and I don’t think that’s the way of choosing a favorite book.

And then, I’ve got a thing for books, so I like and enjoy everything I read or else I don’t read it, and I’ve got a shelf full of books right behind my desk and I’m searching along the titles and none really stands out as one that I liked over the rest.

But.

The book I recomended to more people in the last couple of years is Diane Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale”, so I’ll choose it as my favorite.

I mostly liked the way it was writen, and the atmosphere.

I always have a pen and a notebook when I’m reading (since I read “Sophia’s World” then I was 16) and I note whatever thing that gets my atention or whatever thought I have while reading a certain phrase. I noted tones of things while reading “The Thirteenth Tale”. I loved the language above all, the images, the metaphors. I loved the tragedy. I loved how it was isolated from everything else and how you didn’t miss anything while reading.

When I read it for the 2^nd time I found some things I didn’t like (mostly the treatment given  Adeline’s character) but the fisrt time, there was nothing, nothing, nothing that broke the enchantment. I was into the universe of Angelfiend as I have never been in any other.