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Borges intro. recommendation?

post #1 of 27
12/1/08 at 2:04pm
Thread Starter 
Gents, I'm interested in trying something by Borges. Could those of you familiar recommend a book as an introduction to his works.
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post #2 of 27
12/1/08 at 2:07pm
Don't read Borges.
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post #3 of 27
12/1/08 at 2:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness View Post
Don't read Borges.

that's that settled then.
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post #4 of 27
12/1/08 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Britalian View Post
that's that settled then.

Any collection of his short stories should be a good place. I really want to get back into reading Borges and Calvino. If you like Borges you might also like a Serbian author named Danilo Kis.
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post #5 of 27
12/1/08 at 3:12pm
Penguin published three pretty good collections of his works - fictions, non-fictions, poems.
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post #6 of 27
12/1/08 at 3:13pm
Ficciones
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post #7 of 27
12/1/08 at 3:40pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RJmanbearpig View Post
Any collection of his short stories should be a good place. I really want to get back into reading Borges and Calvino. If you like Borges you might also like a Serbian author named Danilo Kis.

I am a fan of Calvino, so if we are in the same vein with Borges, looking good.
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post #8 of 27
12/1/08 at 7:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Britalian View Post
Gents, I'm interested in trying something by Borges. Could those of you familiar recommend a book as an introduction to his works.
Yes, the Collected Fictions. His volume Ficciones, contained therein, is widely considered his best. The stories "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "Funes, His Memory" are excellent places to start. Borges is not as eminent as Calvino, in my opinion, but he's a rewarding read.
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post #9 of 27
12/1/08 at 8:21pm
Theft in a Pastry Shop by Italo Calvino
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post #10 of 27
12/1/08 at 10:16pm
Most of the stories are pretty easy to dip into. Labyrinths is a classic collection.
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post #11 of 27
12/2/08 at 1:23pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by King Francis View Post
Yes, the Collected Fictions. His volume Ficciones, contained therein, is widely considered his best. The stories "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "Funes, His Memory" are excellent places to start.

Borges is not as eminent as Calvino, in my opinion, but he's a rewarding read.

I recall the Hitch saying he was probably the finest writer in the English language; he also went to S.America to visit him in his later years and read to him in his failing health.
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post #12 of 27
12/2/08 at 1:29pm
The Aleph and Other Stories has some of my favorite Borges short stories, like The Immortal and The Two Kings and the Labyrinths...if you don't like anything in the collection, you probably don't like Borges.
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post #13 of 27
12/2/08 at 1:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by King Francis View Post
Yes, the Collected Fictions. His volume Ficciones, contained therein, is widely considered his best. The stories "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "Funes, His Memory" are excellent places to start.

Borges is not as eminent as Calvino, in my opinion, but he's a rewarding read.

joke?

borges beats calvino hands down, esp. in imagination and creativity
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post #14 of 27
12/2/08 at 5:35pm
i read ficciones after numerous recommendations and didn't get it. maybe i'm just stupid, but i don't think so -- i read about a book a week, and my favorite stuff is beckett, joyce, and other complicated stuff.

not bashing it, i would love to try it again and find a way through it that made sense.
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post #15 of 27
12/2/08 at 10:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by andyliu52 View Post
joke?

borges beats calvino hands down, esp. in imagination and creativity

Have you even read Invisible Cities, or The Non-Existent Knight? Borges is brilliant and fascinating, and his best stories are moving, but his work displays nothing like the comic genius of Calvino, who can provide humor, pathos, and profundity within a single work. His high good humor is most evident in, as the author himself put it, the tale of "an empty suit of armor that persuades itself it is a man and carries on through its own will-power."
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