The Library of Babel (Fictions)
“The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel
Today’s writing challenge is about the book that I can read again and again without getting bored. However, I hardly read a book for the second time. I don’t think that some books deserve it, nor I would appreciate even more the second read, but I usually prefer to read a new one than to “lose time” with an old one. I do almost the same thing with movies. However, movies are faster to re-watch. Therefore it is easier to re-watch and see additional layers that were not seen yet.
That said, I will re-frame this challenge as the book that I sometimes want to read again. The book would be Fictions (original Ficciones, Spanish) (1944) by Jorge Luis Borges. First, it is a small book of short stories. Therefore, it is easy to read. Second, a more important, the stories comprise a profound knowledge that should be revisited from time to time.
Fictions was one of those books that make you fill the brain stretching, some of the stories are so beautifully complex that make your brain grow. I must mention The Library of Babel (on the original La Biblioteca de Babel), the short story is about a library that contains all the possible knowledge in the world. It contains all the books with all the combinations of all words. Therefore, every possible combination of text is there. A lot of books have no meaning, but even though the remaining books represent all the knowledge. When I’ve read the story, I had vertigo.
April 26 | 365 Days of Writing Prompts | Second time around:
Tell us about a book you can read again and again without
getting bored — what is it that speaks to you?
