Cydia South Park Source

There are books you read to learn and there are books you read for pleasure. The thirst for knowledge and wonder at the beauty of a poem or a novel, an essay or a play, are not fought, but they are not the same. There are authors who become reference by the flow of scholarship that found expression in his writings, those of which one must not deny because it is frowned upon (one is ignorant or just stupid), those who opened the road with his intelligence and wisdom and that one should consult in order to justify positions. There are others who do not need justification, because they viscera and that's enough.
Some authors look like the teacher standing on the chair, in front of students, eager, take note of every word that comes from his lips. These professors do not accept rigid reply, are there to suggest worlds, but to convey knowledge.
And then there are others who look into his eyes, his words penetrate and sink into one, those for which one is no longer the same person earlier than later.
Reading is a selfish act, the statement because the world is too small and because we want to be a little bigger for us. We read because every book look for something that speaks to us in the best case, of ourselves. But if not, to speak with one is enough. Knowledge
books show, the books speak of beauty.

knowledge serves me unless the bowel.

Knowledge, when, I appreciate it, but it is accidental.
If you would like to learn, read to Reyes, Zweig, Schnitzler, but frankly I'm bored, its mannered erudition and wisdom, his style so ridiculously careful I do not care. But I always take note, because they say very smart things.

prefer to Montaigne, to Cavafy, Pessoa, the Russians.

I do not read books to learn.


*
Ibán
said last week he was glad he had unwittingly bought a book of Hamsun I already had, only in another translation. When I asked why, he said that he did not want anyone else read this novel, but why?, If you like both Hamsun, you would want others to read. No, I said I do not want anyone else to read so that I can say they do not like about this or that.
not think anyone, I said, who did not like it if you read Hamsun.

But surely those who read to learn, not like.

*