3 ratings (5.00 avg)
2 reviews

Gergely Fliegauf

Add friend

Gergely’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (2)

read‎ (2)

Stats | More…

Gergely is Currently Reading

Gergely Fliegauf is currently reading

Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings

by Jorge Luis Borges

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Gergely Fliegauf said: " Good books do not have to be bought, but they are not for free. I started reading Borges in Hungarian maybe 13 years ago. In three years I have read about one of his stories. Then I realized, bitterly, that I had to return to it, because it was inesc Good books do not have to be bought, but they are not for free. I started reading Borges in Hungarian maybe 13 years ago. In three years I have read about one of his stories. Then I realized, bitterly, that I had to return to it, because it was inescapable. Now that I've written a book myself, and it's about to be published, I know I'm just kissing Borges' footsteps because I can't do anything else. I also know that the boundaries of the universe are finite if we look at it with an agnostic eye. But today's astronomers do no better, they serve a system of thought like little children. How good for them! The one who has a child cannot really be an astronomer, because one cannot divide a human life into two. Anyone who even reads Borges' works is cheating his life. I ask the universe to give me the strength to read more Borges.

Why did I write that good books are free? Because someone gave me this book. That someone didn't read it. No one has flipped through the book. I know, because I can see my fingerprints on it. (I'm 49, I know what that means.) That someone's father translated a story from the anthology. I guess it must have been an honor copy. Yet there it sat on the shelf untouched. Then the book wandered off to me. Through magical pathways. There the book waited on my shelf, and I didn't throw it away. Sometimes I'd take it down and thought, oh, I didn't buy this book, I just got it. I accepted it, but I didn't embrace it. And then one day I read the Tlön. That's what it's about: you take a book off a shelf and you pay a high price for it. Not in money. You can get the money back, but not the time. So you have a duty to choose well.

But why should books be given or found? You don't. You don't need a book to have this experience. It's enough to listen to what's going on in your head. And you have to read it. You get them in the same way you get found books. But where from? We have such a beautiful desire not to believe in coincidence. But rather to believe in some kind of predestination. Borges helps you surrender to that belief.

#mentemalmodtam ...more "

Jun 08, 2022 12:31AM · see review

Gergely Fliegauf is currently reading

Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)

by Octavia E. Butler

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Gergely Fliegauf said: " This book is hard to put down. I read it in Hungarian and especially the names are very hard to remember. For a Hungarian reader, it is not easy to understand why it is extremely important that the protagonist is an African girl. Anyway, the book is ...more "

Jan 16, 2020 06:52AM · see review