200 Books to Enjoy | Some Good Books

About the book

A guide to classic and modern, popular and cult titles that you can enjoy reading.

During the pandemic that we have had to endure in recent years, and whose devastating effects are far from being completely eradicated, the best thing one could and can do is take refuge in a good read or reread. Poetry with a capital P is, without a doubt, epic poetry, starring heroic men with well-founded aspirations to become gods. And within epic poetry, Volksepik or popular epic poetry provides much greater aesthetic and moral comfort —at least in my case— than artistic epic poetry or Kunstepik. Since the fear of contagion, despite multiple vaccines, is long and deep and threatens to perpetuate itself, I do not limit myself to recommending one book to start with, but four: the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Song of the Nibelungs. With these wonders in hand, the final victory over the virus is expected to be closer than without them. Along with this first and quadruple recommendation, you will find in this volume many others (approximately 200 and some loose ends) from articles I wrote that were published between January 2016 and December 2021, that is, over exactly six years, of which four (the first) were free of the pandemic and two (the last) were dominated by it.

These articles were published in their vast majority in ABC Cultural, but also in ABC without surname and, very sporadically, in other newspapers, such as El Mundo, El País and Libertad Digital. Some are unpublished. On this occasion, unlike what happened with Libros contra el aburrimiento and Libros para pasártelo bien, the edition has been entirely my responsibility, since Luis Miguel Suárez was very overwhelmed with work and could not take charge of editing the book, as he did on the two previous occasions. The preparation of the index of proper names has been the responsibility of Reino de Cordelia, whose owner, my dear friend Jesús Egido Salazar, I thank for welcoming with his usual generosity a new book of mine into his catalogue.

The opinion of the critics

«Authors such as Jenaro Talens or Luis Alberto de Cuenca have been fundamental in consolidating the space
of theoretical dialogue on comics».
Ana MERINO | READ
«His reviews are a celebration that invites you to read, to enjoy the adventures, to be passionate about the stories, to take care of the worries and desires that so many splendid authors offer.»
Fernando Rodriguez LAFUENTE | ABC CULTURAL