May 21, 2012 -- Reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón -- Barcelona, Spain

At Park Güell, a theme park of Gaudi buildings and sculpture on a hillside with views of Barcelona

On a park bench out of the way of the tourists and vendors, reading, in German, Der Schatten des Windes (The Shadow of the Wind), by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, a Barcelona author.  I've written about this book several times and was excited to see it here in Barcelona because I'd considered re-reading it for this trip.

 

In the words of Paul Klindt (taken from my dogeared usa blog) -- It’s about a little boy who is taken to a repository of lost books and is allowed to pick out one book. He reads it and wants to read everything by the author, but, throughout history (the book takes you from the Spanish Civil War to contemporary times), something happens each time he gets near a book, like an earthquake.

 

Her favorite book (actually books) is Het Bureau by J.J. Voskuil, which is in 4 volumes of about 700 pages each.  She said it took about a half a year to read it.  She reads at least 2 hours a day on her commute and doesn't read as much on vacation, though managed to catch a quiet moment here.  I'm not actually sure what it's about because I had to go before we talked about it, and I couldn't find any information (in English) about it on the Internet.