Perez-Gomez, professor of architecture at McGill University in Montreal, based his book of an ancient renaissance text entitled Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. It is still in debate who wrote this text, but it is of Italian origin. The fullness of this story is mind numbing, and engages the blood in its verse. I have joined the ranks of many authors in attempting an analysis of this piece of writing, but it seduces then defeats this urge. Through the medium of the verse, this art-piece uses words to touch below our cognitive level, accessing our emotions quite effectively. A brief study into Eros has been very necessary in respect to Perez-Gomez's book, which captures the same story in modern settings.

No sé si el libro que aquí se vende es la primera versión de Por favor, Rebobinar, o la segunda, pero voy a postear un comentario sobre la segunda, porque cuando se empezó a vender el libro en esta página, ya llevaba un par de años en el mercado (la segunda, por si no lo saben, es más completa y tiene más capítulos: son cien páginas más). ¿Qué puedo decir? Es una buena muestra de lo que es Fuguet como escritor, como narrador, de una generación. Las historias se van entrelazando magníficamente, y si quien lo lee ya leyó Mala Onda (es lo más conveniente), también reconoce aspectos que unen de una u otra forma a los personajes. Se parece bastante a la escritura de Ellis, aunque no la copia. Es algo propio, parecido a Ellis por un lado, pero totalmente distinto por otro. Recomiendo también que, después de leer Mala Onda y Por Favor, Rebobinar, lean Tinta Roja, la última de las novelas de Fuguet. Una vez leídos esos tres textos, se puede percibir y apreciar cómo el escritor va madurando en cada uno más. Tinta Roja, por ejemplo, presenta técnicas nuevas, que antes no había usado Fuguet, pero que ejecuta a la perfección. Si dije que de alguna manera Mala Onda y Por Favor, Rebobinar se parecían a los libros de Ellis, Tinta Roja se parece a los libros de Vargas Llosa. El cambio es extraordinario, gigante, pero al mismo tiempo mantiene un no sé qué que nos permite reconocer al autor. Pero me he ido cambiando de tema. Por Favor Rebobinar. Excelente libro. Leanlo, comprenlo, pero no se queden así como así...

"Porque no creo en la Argentina"
por Alberto Halac

Libro en español y publicado durante la los fines de la epoca militar en 1983. Solo 1000 ejemplares fueron impresos.

Introduccion del autor:

"Este trabajo no tiene ninguna pretensión filosófica más profunda que la que pueda aspirar un hombre común, sin formación académica, con una experiencia quizás limitada, y una casi inexistente inclinación tanto para las virtudes heroicas, como para los vicios espectaculares, pero sí es el fruto de un elevado costo emocional y pecuniario afrontado personalmente en su totalidad, y con orgullo.

Es lícito y comprensible, preguntar que motivación me alentó en esta empresa solitaria. Ha sido, irónicamente, una emoción: la vergüenza.

Vergüenza por la mentira y la corrupción institucionalizadas; y por esa pulida y pedante ignorancia de los argentinos. Una ignorancia que los seduce piadosamente al autoengaño.

Es por todo eso que no creo en la Argentina. Sólo creo, en un último análisis, que las proposiciones expresadas a través de estas páginas, están condenadas al repudio basado en viejos prejuicios y una sobrevaluada autoestima."

I found Racconti Romani a delight to read. Each short story has a different theme to explore although they all remain true to the style. To me, the great strength of Moravia's writing is the juxtaposition of reality (most tales take place in poverty stricken post-war Rome) and humour. I defy anyone who has spent any time in Italy not to laugh out loud at the totally believable and yet extreme characters.

I would like keep this book very much. Thanks.I.H.

Except the names of characters and places and few roman words ,the translation seems to be an original English work. The stories are short so that one can read each one in a few minutes and delve for a while since every story is different in its content that says about the characters,the ways and means of their living, their thought process and the result of their reflecting actions. The stories are about simple humans whose living is similar to common people around the world. I wondered they resembled Telugu stories, for Telugu being my mother tongue, the very living styles of the characters and the circumstances barring the advances and the freedom of feminine characters. I like 'The Baby' the most among all. The language is simple but quite expressive, the style racy and the narration picturesque. If permitted I would like to translate some of the stories into Telugu.

This book is based on a thorough study of the Penitente religion. After reading the significant analysis given, many myths and absurdities of the Penitente religion and practices were clarified for me. The Penitentes, a religious group, that have been falsely persecuted for decades have finally been accurately represented. The contribution of this research is extremely significant for all of society especially anyone interested in knowing more about religious studies or New Mexico's history.

Expertly translated from the original Italian by Arthur K. Bierman, Sealed In Stone is the English-language rendition of Anno 1424, a haunting and dramatic novel by Toni Maraini. Set during the Hundred Years' War and based on the historical figure of Alix la Bourgotte, Sealed In Stone is the story of a young Parisian recluse who lives within a cell located in the wall of the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents and observes a boisterous, turbulent, and dangerous world of thieves, scoundrels, rebels, intellectuals, heretics, and pilgrims. Enhanced with an introduction by Alberto Moaravia, Sealed In Stone is very strongly recommended, literate and dramatic story of love, passion, and death amidst a bygone world of violence and change.

"Ruben Dario" is the pseudonym of Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento. He was born in Metapa, Nicaragua (today known as Ciudad Dario) in January 18, 1867.

From the inside cover of the book: "One of the greatest poets of all time in any language... [Dario] changed Spanish-language literature forever in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the seminal figure in the international movement known as "modernismo". Perhaps not since the prodigies of Spain's Golden Age has one poet managed to influence the course of Spanish-language literature so profoundly and permanently, virtually defining poetry both for his generation and for those to follow."

Whether Dario's name is new or already familiar to you, this book will be a joy to read. Amazon.com made this book available for purchase several months before it was actually published. Considering the price of the book, for me it was a purchase purely based on the faith that it would be good. Well, I'm far from disappointed, it's worth every cent!

As a native Nicaraguan who's read much of Dario's work in Spanish, I can honestly say that the authors' translations demonstrate tremendous understanding, sensibility and affection for Dario's work. His poems are presented in Spanish on even-numbered pages and English translations are presented on odd-numbered pages.

The themes of Dario's poems run the gamut: life, love, death, despair, politics, etc. Here's a couple of excerpts:

"VERSOS DE OTONIO"/"AUTUMN VERSES"

When my thought strays to you, it becomes perfumed;
your glance is so sweet, it turns profound.
Under your naked feet there is still the whiteness of foam,
and in your lips you epitomize the joy of the world.

Short-lived love has a brief charm
and offers the same end to delight and sorrow.
And hour ago I engraved a name in the snow;
a minute ago I expressed my love on the sand.

Yellow leaves fall on the boulevard
where so many loving couples stroll.
And in Autumn's cup there is a vague wine
into which your roses, Springtime, will drop their petals.

"LO FATAL"/"WHAT GETS YOU"

How fortunate the tree that is scarcely aware,
and more so the hard stone because it no longer feels,
since there is no greater pain than the pain of living,
nor deeper sorrow than conscious life.

Being, and knowing nothing, and being without a true course,
and the fear of having been, and a future terror...
And the certain dread of being dead tomorrow,
and suffering because of life, and because of shadow, and because of

what we don't know and scarcely suspect,
and the flesh that tempts with its fresh-picked bunches,
and the tomb that awaits with its funeral bouquets,
and not knowing where we are going,
nor from where we have come....!

Coffa's book (completed by his partner Linda Wessels, from a very nearly completed manuscript he left at his death in 1984) is the best source I know for insight into how interest in Kantian philosophical problems of the intuition transmuted to interest in language. This book tracks post-Kantian thought across its development into very different territory: Bolzano and Frege on logic; Russell's early logical atomism; Wittgenstein's Tractatus, and his transition to his later very different philosophy of meaning; Tarski on truth; Schlick, Popper and Reichenbach on the significiance of 20th Century developments in science; and Carnap, on the true significance of philosophical claims.

This book is a teriffic antidote to dry presentations of logical positivism which focus on the "verification principle" and thereby seek to dispatch it in one lecture in an introductory philosophy class. Instead, Coffa shows how logical positivism arose out of a living tradition and forms an important part of the history of contemporary philosophy. The questions we consider today are formed in part by the conceptual shifts of a century ago. It's good that we have a guide like Coffa to show us some more of our own history.

That, and the jokes (read the footnotes for some of the best ones, especially his love/hate relationship with Wittgenstein!) make this a delight to read.