I am having a reading-intensive vacation. My parents are coming in a week and I want to finish my list of 6 books to read on these 5-week break PSU students enjoy. While at it, I have to make a little reflection on how reading changes my perspective of life, every time. And I’m going to do this by judging these last 6 months of reading.
- School:
“Ecology Against Capitalism” by John Bellamy Foster
Essays by Herman Daly, Robert Babe, Max-Neef, David Orr, Vandana Shiva, Joseph Stiglitz.
I can’t even start to express how much have all these readings affect my life. I have grown stronger as a social and ecological activist, and I’ve gotten to share my time with amazing people who understand the true meaning of sustainability and who are on their way to take over their part of the journey towards a better world. Of course, this couldn’t have come at a better moment, when all the Occupy movement has spread out all over the world and I happen to work at a socialist newspaper that gives me the freedom to analyse these uprisings from a world perspective. OccupyPSU is also taking over, and I think we are all a great incorporation to the social change. I can’t wait to see what we are all up to in a couple of years.
“Savages” by Joe Kane
“Schools in the Forest” by Denis Heyck
These two were about education and organization from indigenous populations in the Amazon Rainforest. It is fascinating to see how this universal capitalist rule of “profits before people” just takes over land, lives and beauty. One of my favorite quotes (aprox.): “Destroying a community of over 1500 people, only so the US can have 13 more days of oil”.
- News
I read El País, Público, The New York Times, WW, Portland Mercury and The Guardian almost daily. Lately it’s been even more enlightening to be part of this world, as school and the people I’ve met have made me much more aware of economic, political and environmental issues I was not too in touch with.
- Fiction
“A Simple Machine, Like the Lever” by Evan P. Schneider
“Yeah. No. Totally” by Lisa Wells
These two small press local reads have entirely hyped me up even more for what I want to do in this city. The two books really spoke to me as a reader and as a writer (combination that is becoming stronger with time). Right after putting them down I started looking for publishers that would accept translations, ways in which I could function as a bridge from Portland to Barcelona, or something. I also started thinking about my own possibilities as a small press editor that had Spanish books as a priority, and I’m just so excited to be here, at this moment, with these people.
I am currently translating Evan’s book, as a personal project. This is certainly going to change my life, in some way.
“Disgrace” by J.M. Coatzee
I can only say, I loved this book. I loved this book.
And as I’ve been reading every day for hours, I’ve been overly inspired to write, and still have not written much of anything. Why? I just think I want to keep reading. Reading gives me almost the same satisfaction as writing, and translating is being a wonderful task that feels very close to writing my own work. Mostly because it’s Spanish, and everyone who knows me knows that I have a lot of trouble liking anything I write in English (like this post, for example). Eventually though, I’ll start writing again. Right now taking film photos, editing, translating and reading are filling up my days with true beauty.
We’ll see how long this happiness lasts. As most of you may know, I’m not too good at being emotionally stable.
