Dove l´Abate si mostra fiero delle ricchezze della sua abbazzia…  

Until now I had never read anything by Umberto Eco, but a trip to Tuscany gave me the opportunity to buy, in a well-stocked and cozy bookshop in Pisa, Il nome della rosa.

Today I have started the chapter dedicated to the second day, nona hour, and in the third paragraph I have found another example of the subtlety and kindness with which the Piedmontese treats his attributed atheism. Ecco, in said paragraph and through the mouth of the abbot, Eco describes the riches of the abbey: topaz, ruby, sapphire, emerald, onyx, agate... and with total cleanliness, I would say asepsis, the author convinces us, at least he has convinced me, that the best way to glorify the name of God and to magnify the sacrifice he made for men is to receive and offer blood in those wonderful chalices of gold and precious stones.

I already assumed that this book was going to be one of those that you cannot stop reading, because having watched the film by J. Annaud, since then I had the lively desire to get hold of the work and see if reading it would fill me with so much satisfaction like the movie.

It´s true that it shouldn´t be, that one thing cannot be compared with the other one. That the books have to be compared, if the case arises, with the books and the movies with the movies because they are two different arts.

As anyone who follows me already knows, I am an unrecoverable atheist and I am not convinced by the abbot's argument. As a reader I applaud the elegance and resources used by U.E.

 

From my Borstal

LDR

Il nome della rosa.- Umberto Eco.- Tascabili Bompiani, LVII edizione marzo 2010. Milano

 

The birds of my town

     Last Friday I was in Fuentes de Andalucía, at the presentation of the book 'Las aves de mi pueblo', the work of Francisco Barcia and which focuses on the most representative birdlife of this beautiful place in the province of Seville.

     I had already been in Fuentes a couple of times, but on this occasion and on the occasion of the Book Fair that is held annually around this time, I traveled to the town due to the interest that a book dedicated to the birds of the Sevillian Campiña aroused to me.

     This is how I had the opportunity to greet and talk for a while with the author of the work and get hold of a copy of the publication that contains a hundred photographs —most of them taken by Paco—, beautiful images that accompany the small texts that help to identify each species.

     I enjoyed an afternoon with people who love what I love and that gave me a feeling of relaxation that I had needed for a long time.

     Y. a.

     Mary