Jan
18
Top 10 list of books in Spanish
If you’re like me, you’re constantly on the lookout for new materials you can use to learn and improve your Spanish. A great way to enlarge your vocabulary and gain more confidence in using the language is by reading. Here is a list of the 10 best books published in Spanish in 2007, according to Babelia, the book review section of El País, one of Spain’s largest newspapers. Some of the books are translations of works originally written in other languages. You can find these for sale online at Casa del Libro.
(The authors’ names are listed first, then the title of the book. Inside the parenthesis is the name of the publisher.)
1. Vasili Grossman, Vida y destino (Galaxia Gutenberg / Círculo de Lectores)
2. Javier Marías, Tu rostro mañana, 3. Veneno y sombra y adiós (Alfaguara)
3. Jonathan Littell, Las benévolas (RBA)
4. Eugenio Trías, El canto de las sirenas (Galaxia Gutenberg / Círculo de Lectores)
5. Cormac McCarthy, La carretera (Mondadori)
6. Enrique Vila-Matas, Exploradores del abismo (Anagrama)
7. Juan Antonio González-Iglesias, Eros es más (Visor)
8. Belén Gopegui, El padre de Blancanieves (Anagrama)
9. Jorge Wagensberg, El gozo intelectual (Tusquets)
10. Robin Lane Fox, El mundo clásico (Crítica)
Hello Sir, I am an spanish woman working on my phd., second year on English phonetics. Let me tell you some books I like in Spanish “Sin noticias de Gurb” By Eduardo Mendoza ; all the Non-serious books by him are gorgeous, with the serious ones he got prices and was very famous, but the last ones are sooooo funny, the one I mention is very short and easy, I hope you like it. I will be telling you about others if you happen to like it.
A very nice to read, and deep on the argument is “Un millonario inocente” by Wyczenkzy (I hope is right spell) this is a Polish by birth but English by literature, considered as an erotic writter, I don’t like any of his erotic books (I am not very font of it anyway) but this book seems to be a recompilation of his thoughts.
I will be writting more.
I am sorry that as a foreigner you have sometimes the feeling of being mistreated! When I was 18 (long ago) I lived in N.Y. and people my age asked me if we had cars in Spain (I answered we didn’t we went by donkey to places), or in which part of Africa was Spain…..
I gave an speech of Franco and people by a double mistake though I was a comunist…they thought Franco was a comunist for being a dictator and they thought I was pro Franco for being Spanish.
Don’t let those things afect you go for the good things only.
Take care: S.Bustinduy
Bustinduy,
Thanks very much for the book recommendations. I will have to add those titles to my reading list.
And don’t worry, I don’t feel like a mistreated foreigner in Spain and I’m not mortally offended by that silly Caja Madrid letter. In the grand scheme of things it was nothing but it gave me a good topic to rant about in my blog!
Overall I’ve had an excellent time and a generally positive experience in Spain.
Elena,
Maybe you can help me out. These book suggestions are fantastic, but I am also looking for more information on good podcasts to download (other than your’s of course). I don’t know if you’re familiar with National Public Radio in the States, but I am looking for programs like these. Any suggestions?
Hi Gabriella,
Have you ever listened to BBC Enlace? It’s the BBC’s Spanish podcast on a wide range of topical subjects, from stay-at-home dads to freedom of the press. I like it. NPR has a Spanish podcast as well called “La Matinal.” It has the format of a conventional newscast.
If you like history, there’s an excellent podcast in English called “Hardcore History” by Dan Carlin. It only comes out monthly but Dan does an excellent job putting out an extremely detailed, well-researched provocative hour of programming. Dan also has a socio-political podcast which I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet but it has muy buena pinta.
All of these, of course, are available on iTunes.
Happy listening!