thank you, love this book and it's characters also hooked me into anxiously awaiting their fate. I found this book very romantic, historically. I would like to visit Barcelona and tour the historical areas of the book
Me too :) I’ve been wanting to visit Barcelona and I’m so excited to read some good books before I go! Ah… That’s what I did accidentally the book by Dan Brown Inferno took me to study abroad in Italy TWICE! Ahahahaa
Glad you reviewed this book. I love the book. Read it multiple times and just wrapped up the series this year. As a librarian I try to recommend this book when possible. I feel it has that ability to spark passion in reading. I also feel that Zafon tells a good story. In fact, Zafon is what got me into reading translated text. English is not a love language and even though you mentioned you felt the prose were not as strong in this book, I feel the way Zafon can describe Barcelona (I first read Marina and was blown away at his ability to create setting and mood). I hope you enjoy the series. His book was a great turning point in my reading career. I feel like along the way there are many authors and books that create lasting impressions on me. It is fun following you and seeing the same. You get so excited as you read and talk about these great works. It was nice when you were going through your DFW phase as I was as well. Keep up the good work.
I'm so moved by your comment about this book! I was born and live in Barcelona, and, consequently know all the places that appear in 'The Shadow of the Wind', which I read in English and found very, very interesting and connected to my city, of course. I suppose that I cannot be very objective, since I have known during all my life the Bookshop Llibreria Canuda, that inspired Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Unfortunately, that sanctuary closed its doors in November 2013. It was the most prestigious Bookshops especialized in Old Books. As you came in, you could breathe the old book pages, and, at the same time, hear your steps walking on the wooden floor. I went three days before that place disappeared, asked to the devoted Director permission to film and photograph the whole space. The exact and generous answer was: 'Do whatever you want'. All the emotion is condensed on the video I uploaded on my channel, whose title is: "Llibreria Canuda de Barcelona, ¡Hasta siempre!". I supposed you are very busy, but if you have two minutes to watch it, I hope you will enjoy. Thank you for your attention.
I will, my friend - thank you for sharing the experience! One thing I failed to mention in the video is that Shadow of the Wind, and the sequels too, read like wonderful, wistful, enraged and smitten love letters to Barcelona, and relish in recreating the city in ink. I very much admire Zafon's commitment there.
As a child I used to read a lot, but when it became mandatory in high school I gave up on it. Kafka brought me back to reading (or Deleuze, seeing how he pointed me towards Kafka). It was the first time I was confronted with the idea that one can read not only as escapist fantasy, but also as apreciation of style.
This is a new one for me. Thank you for the recommendation. The first author who captured me was Dr Seuss. Like many readers, I am guilty of forgetting my first loves, but his books taught me how to read. I would listen to the stories on tape, turn the page at the chime, and eventually learned the scribbles on the page had meaning. Now that I have a child myself, I have had fun going back over the stories again. The first "adult" author to capture me in that way was Poe. I started reading his works around 10, often not understanding all that was on the page, but being absorbed by the atmosphere. To this day, some of my favorite books have been the ones I struggled with (for whatever reason), and came out with a rewarding experience at the end. GR, of course, but also Ada, or Ardor (by Nabokov), VALIS by PK Dick, or House of Leaves.
I also lived in Barcelona at a very different time, when Franco's power was dwindling. When I finished the book finally, the last lines, I didn't have words, only sounds and I thought, "you are mine forever".
The first writer who really captivated me, I mean really, REALLY hooked me, was Mary Shelley. I read a dumbed down kiddie version of Frankenstein when I was like 10, and was left baffled as to how different it was from what I had been expecting. Then, when I was like 17, I read the real, original version, and was blown away. The sheer amount of topics and themes which she crammed into that slim little book still floors me today. Needless to say, Frankenstein remains my favorite book of all time.
I read all his books and am listening to the audio version, I have one hour to go. I learned last night that he died two years ago ! I was so looking forward to more of his work, so sad, he was so young.
Very fascinating! Didn't know about the existence of a genre called "Lost Manuscript." I had given up reading this book after the first couple of chapters a few years ago (probably because I didn't pay attention to the plot as much as I did to the writing style). I'm motivated to pick it up and give it a re-read after watching your video.
Santiago Gamboa is dope! "Night Prayers" is a beautiful book. Thank you. i own " The Shadow of the wind" ! I knew there was a reason i picked it out of that Box of used books on the floor at a local store. Thanks Man.
In my personal mythology, Chabon wrote somewhere in his essays : "I write for entertainment. Period." I can't really be sure because "Maps And Legends" is hidden somewhere in a pile of books over there and I'm using what little energy I have left to write this
I just discovered this review. I read SotW and fell in love with it years ago. It's on my shortlist of all time favorites. I've picked it up again in the wake of the news of Zafon's passing.
I love the book, I’m on the second one now and I can’t stop reading !!! I can read Spanish so I’m doing that and they’re awesome, I’m glad I can read the 4 books one after another !!!
I read this book when it came out and absolutely loved me. In many ways, it reinvigorated my joy for reading. Its successor, The Angel’s Game, was a bit of a letdown for me, but The Prisoner of Heaven was so gripping that I finished it in a single day. Fermin is such a fantastic character. As for my personal Carax, it’s Eco, who shaped me with Foucault’s Pendulum
I've never heard you mention him, but John Irving's The World According to Garp got me back into reading and creative writing during my senior year of HS. After I finished the first chapter, which ended in an ejaculation joke based on the death of an injured turret gunner, my jaw dropped for ways you could only understand if you read it lol.
Highly interesting, there was another 'Graveyard of Unwritten Books' by the Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel that appeared in Son Tramway (1991) Which Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill mentioned years later in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
I don't know about earliest authors ...but a year back when I was a physics student I read Crime and punishment (Dostoevsky), Anna karenina (Tolstoy) and kafka.. now I'm an english m.a so yeah there's that.. also I just finished The Brothers karamasov..please do read and review it sometime soon.
I'm a native Spanish speaker that read the book in Spanish, also I bought it on a whim without knowing a thing about Zafón's reputation (as in, is he usually praised among literary circles? is he more of a commercial writer? I still haven't bothered to check even today). When I read it I wasn't very impressed by it. I felt the same way as you about the prose, it just felt bland and not particularly beautiful. So maybe the translation that you read was not what tarnished the prose of the book but rather it didn't have much to work with the original version. The themes of the book are fine, it's the kind of stuff I'd love to love, y'know? I'm a sucker for these kinds of ideas and settings... when they manage to hook me in. In this case, the prose, the dialogue and the descriptions just felt so... evident in their attempt to sell me this particular brand of magical experience that it kinda made me cringe a little. It just felt unauthentic. I don't know. As with everything, maybe if I had read it a month earlier or later I would have felt different.
@@GeorgeMillerUSA I quite liked what I read by him, but I have not gotten around reading some of his most known works yet. I wrote an article about the intertextuality between his "El detective de las ratas" and Kafka's "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" for a final examen and it seems it's getting published in a research publication at my university, so I guess I should get on with finally reading Savage Detectives and 2666.
Being a lover of books (obviously) and a lover of Barcelona, where I lived for a few years when I was younger, I was so excited to read this book. I'm sorry to say that I couldn't finish it. I haven't put a book away for many years, but I found this one just not worth my time. The prose is bad, as you say in your video, but the worst thing for me was the banality of it all. So many sentences were supposed to be mysterious and give us a hint about something deep in the plot, but I just thought they were stupidly obvious and endlessly obsolete. I'm happy to hear that the second book is better, I might give it a try. But like you, I have many other things on the shelf...
If you disliked Shadow of the Wind so much (and as I say in the video, I know others who had your same experience), I wouldn't bother with Angel's Game ;) it's thrilling and entertaining, and says a few interesting things about the craft of writing, but overall I think Shadow of the Wind is the better book.
It's a masterpiece! Very puzzling final line but endlessly stimulating and beautifully majestic, a monument to the darker sides of recent American history and to the power of language! And thanks :D
@@TheBookchemist I have Underworld on my shelf so will start it soon. Reading Shadow of the Wind just now after watching your review. Really enjoying it so far. Keep up the good work!
The annotated HP Lovecraft books by Lesly S Klinger are treasure troves . The second volume subtitled : beyond arkham is out in America . They will make you get hooked on lovecraft again
I do love baseball although I only really followed it as a teenager (and was a Twins fan, for whatever reason!!!). Baseball novels - some of the best novels of all times are baseball novels! DeLillo's Underworld and Roth's The Great American Novel are up there with the best stuff! Harbach's The Art of Fielding is also excellent, while Chabon's Summerland is ambitious and different but only marginally successful. Oh and Coover's Universal Baseball Association, here recommended, is another must read.
Hi. Many congrats on your videos-reviews... Just some book recommendations, just in case you have run out of (!) unread books: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov Confessions by Jaume Cabre
The writers who've influenced me the most have been Stephen King and Thomas Pynchon. I can honestly say that reading those books really changed things around for me.
This book sucks in my opinion, I had a lot expectations for it so... But what bothers me was how the author writes women on this book, most of them are sexualiazed in such an unnecessary manner, there are other things too but I don't want to spoil for the one's who didn't read it.
thank you, love this book and it's characters also hooked me into anxiously awaiting their fate. I found this book very romantic, historically. I would like to visit Barcelona and tour the historical areas of the book
Me too :) I’ve been wanting to visit Barcelona and I’m so excited to read some good books before I go! Ah…
That’s what I did accidentally the book by Dan Brown Inferno took me to study abroad in Italy TWICE! Ahahahaa
Glad you reviewed this book. I love the book. Read it multiple times and just wrapped up the series this year. As a librarian I try to recommend this book when possible. I feel it has that ability to spark passion in reading. I also feel that Zafon tells a good story. In fact, Zafon is what got me into reading translated text. English is not a love language and even though you mentioned you felt the prose were not as strong in this book, I feel the way Zafon can describe Barcelona (I first read Marina and was blown away at his ability to create setting and mood). I hope you enjoy the series. His book was a great turning point in my reading career. I feel like along the way there are many authors and books that create lasting impressions on me. It is fun following you and seeing the same. You get so excited as you read and talk about these great works. It was nice when you were going through your DFW phase as I was as well. Keep up the good work.
Zafon's Marina is such a weepie!!
Whoa! You’re alive!
I'm so moved by your comment about this book! I was born and live in Barcelona, and, consequently know all the places that appear in 'The Shadow of the Wind', which I read in English and found very, very interesting and connected to my city, of course. I suppose that I cannot be very objective, since I have known during all my life the Bookshop Llibreria Canuda, that inspired Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Unfortunately, that sanctuary closed its doors in November 2013. It was the most prestigious Bookshops especialized in Old Books. As you came in, you could breathe the old book pages, and, at the same time, hear your steps walking on the wooden floor. I went three days before that place disappeared, asked to the devoted Director permission to film and photograph the whole space. The exact and generous answer was: 'Do whatever you want'. All the emotion is condensed on the video I uploaded on my channel, whose title is: "Llibreria Canuda de Barcelona, ¡Hasta siempre!". I supposed you are very busy, but if you have two minutes to watch it, I hope you will enjoy. Thank you for your attention.
I will, my friend - thank you for sharing the experience! One thing I failed to mention in the video is that Shadow of the Wind, and the sequels too, read like wonderful, wistful, enraged and smitten love letters to Barcelona, and relish in recreating the city in ink. I very much admire Zafon's commitment there.
As a child I used to read a lot, but when it became mandatory in high school I gave up on it. Kafka brought me back to reading (or Deleuze, seeing how he pointed me towards Kafka). It was the first time I was confronted with the idea that one can read not only as escapist fantasy, but also as apreciation of style.
This is a new one for me. Thank you for the recommendation.
The first author who captured me was Dr Seuss. Like many readers, I am guilty of forgetting my first loves, but his books taught me how to read. I would listen to the stories on tape, turn the page at the chime, and eventually learned the scribbles on the page had meaning. Now that I have a child myself, I have had fun going back over the stories again.
The first "adult" author to capture me in that way was Poe. I started reading his works around 10, often not understanding all that was on the page, but being absorbed by the atmosphere. To this day, some of my favorite books have been the ones I struggled with (for whatever reason), and came out with a rewarding experience at the end. GR, of course, but also Ada, or Ardor (by Nabokov), VALIS by PK Dick, or House of Leaves.
A favourite of mine! Would love to read to my children or pass it on to them, is that good! claro en cierto derecho
I also lived in Barcelona at a very different time, when Franco's power was dwindling. When I finished the book finally, the last lines, I didn't have words, only sounds and I thought, "you are
mine forever".
Welcome back! A new writer to me. The writers who have given me such a unique and rich reading experience are Joyce and Pynchon.
The first writer who really captivated me, I mean really, REALLY hooked me, was Mary Shelley. I read a dumbed down kiddie version of Frankenstein when I was like 10, and was left baffled as to how different it was from what I had been expecting. Then, when I was like 17, I read the real, original version, and was blown away. The sheer amount of topics and themes which she crammed into that slim little book still floors me today. Needless to say, Frankenstein remains my favorite book of all time.
I read all his books and am listening to the audio version, I have one hour to go. I learned last night that he died two years ago ! I was so looking forward to more of his work, so sad, he was so young.
Very fascinating! Didn't know about the existence of a genre called "Lost Manuscript." I had given up reading this book after the first couple of chapters a few years ago (probably because I didn't pay attention to the plot as much as I did to the writing style). I'm motivated to pick it up and give it a re-read after watching your video.
I absolutely loved this book!
Santiago Gamboa is dope! "Night Prayers" is a beautiful book. Thank you. i own " The Shadow of the wind" ! I knew there was a reason i picked it out of that Box of used books on the floor at a local store. Thanks Man.
In my personal mythology, Chabon wrote somewhere in his essays : "I write for entertainment. Period." I can't really be sure because "Maps And Legends" is hidden somewhere in a pile of books over there and I'm using what little energy I have left to write this
I just discovered this review. I read SotW and fell in love with it years ago. It's on my shortlist of all time favorites. I've picked it up again in the wake of the news of Zafon's passing.
I love the book, I’m on the second one now and I can’t stop reading !!! I can read Spanish so I’m doing that and they’re awesome, I’m glad I can read the 4 books one after another !!!
I read this book when it came out and absolutely loved me. In many ways, it reinvigorated my joy for reading. Its successor, The Angel’s Game, was a bit of a letdown for me, but The Prisoner of Heaven was so gripping that I finished it in a single day. Fermin is such a fantastic character.
As for my personal Carax, it’s Eco, who shaped me with Foucault’s Pendulum
I've never heard you mention him, but John Irving's The World According to Garp got me back into reading and creative writing during my senior year of HS. After I finished the first chapter, which ended in an ejaculation joke based on the death of an injured turret gunner, my jaw dropped for ways you could only understand if you read it lol.
That book was full of jokes, metaphors, witticisms, and laugh out loud moments interwoven with great bits of life wisdom. I LOVED that book
Learning from Pakistan
just came back to this one after finishing Angel's Game, which I liked more, I like how dark it was. I'm jumping into #3 today
Highly interesting, there was another 'Graveyard of Unwritten Books' by the Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel that appeared in Son Tramway (1991) Which Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill mentioned years later in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
OMG welcome back! A beautiful review of a beautiful book, I thought we would buddy-read something this past Summer... Hope all is well! :)
Welcome back! My first deep experience with a book was The last temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Great review! Good to hear from you as always
As a child I was captivated by Roald Dahl and as a teenager it was John Steinbeck.
I don't know about earliest authors ...but a year back when I was a physics student I read Crime and punishment (Dostoevsky), Anna karenina (Tolstoy) and kafka.. now I'm an english m.a so yeah there's that.. also I just finished The Brothers karamasov..please do read and review it sometime soon.
Paolo Giordano - The Solitude of prime number, definetly my first deep experience with a book
I'm a native Spanish speaker that read the book in Spanish, also I bought it on a whim without knowing a thing about Zafón's reputation (as in, is he usually praised among literary circles? is he more of a commercial writer? I still haven't bothered to check even today). When I read it I wasn't very impressed by it. I felt the same way as you about the prose, it just felt bland and not particularly beautiful. So maybe the translation that you read was not what tarnished the prose of the book but rather it didn't have much to work with the original version.
The themes of the book are fine, it's the kind of stuff I'd love to love, y'know? I'm a sucker for these kinds of ideas and settings... when they manage to hook me in. In this case, the prose, the dialogue and the descriptions just felt so... evident in their attempt to sell me this particular brand of magical experience that it kinda made me cringe a little. It just felt unauthentic. I don't know. As with everything, maybe if I had read it a month earlier or later I would have felt different.
Have you read Roberto Bolaño? If so, what do you think of his work?
@@GeorgeMillerUSA I quite liked what I read by him, but I have not gotten around reading some of his most known works yet. I wrote an article about the intertextuality between his "El detective de las ratas" and Kafka's "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" for a final examen and it seems it's getting published in a research publication at my university, so I guess I should get on with finally reading Savage Detectives and 2666.
@@teoentrelibros Glad you like it. It’s a shame he left us too soon.
The shadow of the wind is an amazing book.
Being a lover of books (obviously) and a lover of Barcelona, where I lived for a few years when I was younger, I was so excited to read this book. I'm sorry to say that I couldn't finish it. I haven't put a book away for many years, but I found this one just not worth my time. The prose is bad, as you say in your video, but the worst thing for me was the banality of it all. So many sentences were supposed to be mysterious and give us a hint about something deep in the plot, but I just thought they were stupidly obvious and endlessly obsolete.
I'm happy to hear that the second book is better, I might give it a try. But like you, I have many other things on the shelf...
If you disliked Shadow of the Wind so much (and as I say in the video, I know others who had your same experience), I wouldn't bother with Angel's Game ;) it's thrilling and entertaining, and says a few interesting things about the craft of writing, but overall I think Shadow of the Wind is the better book.
True, same reason, bit cheap and shallow so couldn't roll on with it further from the first few pages. The hype still makes me wonder. :)
Kafka was the first writer to make a huge impression on me.
Please make more videos, months between each one is too long.
Have you read Underworld by Don Delillo? If so, what did you make of it? Love your reviews. Best I've seen on You Tube and I've watched many
It's a masterpiece! Very puzzling final line but endlessly stimulating and beautifully majestic, a monument to the darker sides of recent American history and to the power of language! And thanks :D
@@TheBookchemist I have Underworld on my shelf so will start it soon. Reading Shadow of the Wind just now after watching your review. Really enjoying it so far. Keep up the good work!
The annotated HP Lovecraft books by Lesly S Klinger are treasure troves . The second volume subtitled : beyond arkham is out in America . They will make you get hooked on lovecraft again
I noticed you were wearing a red Sox shirt? Are you a baseball fan? If so, do you have any suggestions of baseball novels? Or sport novels?
Baseball novel recommendation: www.goodreads.com/book/show/11056540-the-universal-baseball-association-inc-j-henry-waugh-prop
I do love baseball although I only really followed it as a teenager (and was a Twins fan, for whatever reason!!!). Baseball novels - some of the best novels of all times are baseball novels! DeLillo's Underworld and Roth's The Great American Novel are up there with the best stuff! Harbach's The Art of Fielding is also excellent, while Chabon's Summerland is ambitious and different but only marginally successful. Oh and Coover's Universal Baseball Association, here recommended, is another must read.
Great book, glad you got to read it. Try 'The Death of the Detective' by Mark Smith, it'll knock your socks off, a very great novel yet little known.
3.35 stars on Goodreads
Hi. Many congrats on your videos-reviews...
Just some book recommendations, just in case you have run out of (!) unread books:
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman
The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov
Confessions by Jaume Cabre
The writers who've influenced me the most have been Stephen King and Thomas Pynchon. I can honestly say that reading those books really changed things around for me.
I _loved_ this novel and reviewed it:
ruclips.net/video/LRYN2989s6Q/видео.html
Cannot hardly wait to read the sequels.
This book sucks in my opinion, I had a lot expectations for it so... But what bothers me was how the author writes women on this book, most of them are sexualiazed in such an unnecessary manner, there are other things too but I don't want to spoil for the one's who didn't read it.
Gilles Deleuze was my Julian Carax
Entertain me, and I will return. Full stop
Te amo
Your video's are great....the air quotes not so much