We have finally left Black Friday behind; in most cases, a monumental deception that consists of making us believe that we will find a series of products we don't need cheaper. In a few years, this Black Friday, which inaugurates the Christmas shopping season in the United States, the day after Thanksgiving, has become fully consolidated among us. It amazes me how easily we leave behind our traditions of religious origin, which, in their time, already parasitized earlier pagan celebrations, and so richly adopt others manufactured by capitalism.
In any case, we are two days away from Christmas, a time that, for most of us, has no religious meaning, although we still decorate our homes with colored lights and gather around a well-stocked table with family and friends. And we continue to exchange gifts, of course. For this reason, Christmas is one of the most important commercial campaigns of the year, also for the book sector.
Certainly, when we think of giving books as gifts, the first thing that comes to mind for all of us is Sant Jordi. However, today I want to reveal a secret: YOU CAN ALSO GIVE BOOKS AS GIFTS AT CHRISTMAS!
I take for granted that those of you who don't go a week without stepping into a bookstore are very clear about this, and I'm sure that at Christmas, you give very well-chosen books with beautiful dedications, but the occasional reader might not have noticed it.
What's more, I bet that at Christmas, more than one person doesn't dare to give books as gifts because they think it's a bit of a buzzkill, that it's for boring or spoilsport people. Perhaps because a book reminds us that enjoyment is often linked to solitude, to effort, to silence, to concentration. What a downer!
There are also those who think that giving a book as a gift when you can give perfume, a tie, or a kitchen robot is for lazy people with little imagination who, instead of scouring the Illa Diagonal from end to end to find an original gift that surprises its recipient, head straight to the bookstore and solve it in the blink of an eye. As if choosing a book were an easy thing!
In what I am about to say now, I am sure we agree: on Christmas Eve, there is nothing worse than seeing the face of the usual blockhead, whether or not he is a brother-in-law, who unwraps a gift package with emotion and, when he sees that it is neither a game for the Play nor a Smartbox or a Satisfyer, exclaims with disappointment: a book.
Perhaps, even if you are avid readers, you are among those who think it is better for everyone to buy their own books, because there is no accounting for taste. We could say the same about underwear or perfumes, and a lot of both are given as gifts these days, right? No, seriously, I understand your reasoning, but I have a strong argument to refute it, although it is true that there are people who give infected books that are not even good for putting under the short leg of a table.
On Christmas Eve, there is nothing worse than seeing the face of the usual blockhead who unwraps a gift package with emotion and, when he sees that it is neither a game for the Play nor a Smartbox or a Satisfyer, exclaims with disappointment: a bookI like getting books as gifts, because they force me to step out of my comfort zone as a reader.I know the expression "comfort zone" causes hives, but in this case, I think it's pertinent. Let me explain: as a reader, I usually assiduously read certain authors published by certain publishers or on certain topics, simply because they are a guarantee. I consider myself a curious reader with a broad perspective, but, nevertheless, sometimes I err a bit on the conservative side and give few opportunities to new authors, new publishers, or topics that a priori don't interest me in the slightest. For this reason, I am so grateful when I am given books that I would never have bought on my own. Thanks to this, I have discovered wonderful books that have helped me grow as a reader and as a person. It's true that I have also been given some books that I have been tempted to throw into the fire, but even so, it's worth it; both giving books, at the risk of not getting it right, and receiving them, at the risk of not getting past page fifteen.
These days, readers are in luck. The content platform CaixaForum+ has just premiered Booklovers, a magnificent documentary series about the love of books. Led by writer Jorge Carrión, it proposes a journey through great cultural metropolises through their bookstores, libraries, writers, and readers. The first episode, already available, is dedicated to Buenos Aires, the one of books and culture, not the one of Milei. In the coming weeks, the Barcelona episode will be released. The tour that Carrión proposes through our city could not be more enticing: the Baró de Quadras palace (headquarters of the Institut Ramon Llull), the Sant Antoni Market, the Biblioteca del Dipòsit de les Aigües and the award-winning Gabriel García Márquez, the Supercomputing Center and the bookstores +Bernat, Nollegiu, La Calders, Ona, La Central, La Petita and Finestres. Carrión converses with booksellers Montse Serrano and Xavier Vidal, writer Enrique Vila-Matas, and editor Jorge Herralde, among others.
These days, readers are in luck: the content platform CaixaForum+ has just premiered Booklovers, a magnificent documentary series about the love of booksBy the way, about books and cities, a small gem has just appeared in Catalan, beautifully edited by Més Llibres and translated by Oriol Valls:Records of distant mountainsof Orhan Pamuk.A very special book, made from a selection of texts and drawings with which, for more than a decade, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in Literature has filled pages of his notebooks every day.Pamuk annotates and draws what happens to him in his daily life, reflects on current events, and even dialogues with the characters of his novels.
Pamuk's book is neither a game for the Play nor a Smartbox or a Satisfyer, but I am convinced that it provides a playful reading, a journey full of adventures into the universe of the author of the wonderful Istanbul, and, of course, hours of indescribable pleasure.