FOREIGN AUTHORS
Today I finished two books: Gabriel Garcia Márquez´s Love in the Time of Cholera and Paulo Coelho´s The Alchemist. I finished Márquez at about 5 this morning after getting in from some bars at 2. Then I started Coelho this afternoon and just finished it tonight - constant rain helped me stay indoors.

Damn. Seriously. The books were amazing. Thanks for both, Em. If you haven´t read them - start now. For some reason the Colombian and Brazilian are way ahead of at least the stuff I´ve read out of the States, which shouldn´t set anyone back too much. The books were insanely deep and I doubt I´ll be able to concentrate on much else the next few days.

They both uniquely approach love and its many facets: time, distance, reciprocity, etc. While completely different, there are some cool similarities. Alchemist mixes so many religious/spiritual/worldy beliefs that you wonder how so many major world religions can have existed together for so long without simply blending into one. Questioning organized and hierarchical religion was at least one thing I came away doing.

But this isn´t a book review session for anyone - I only have one book left that I brought with me, and the rate I have gone through the others makes me think that I´ll need some new ones pretty soon.

So suggest away.

But I don´t want anything too heavy. These two will be plenty for at least several weeks.

I´m looking more for the Far Side or something like that right now. How about a moment of silence for the fact that Gary Larson doesn´t make us laugh as much as he once did. Not only that, but why the hell did Bill Watterson stop Calvin and Hobbes. I keep thinking it´ll come back from the grave, but I have yet to see Lazarus rise. But I do suggest some relatively newer comics in the absence of the greats. Zits and Get Fuzzy are both wonderful - but surely I´m only preaching to the choir with those two.

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Oh, and about Chile. It´s raining like crazy. Flooding like crazy. They shut down one line of the metro ( a completely private entity that is kept ridiculously clean, which I find crazy) due to flooding. And it snowed in Santiago today, which is apparently crazy. I am wearing many layers and earlier today realized I was watching my breath indoors. Luckily my parents bought a space heater for my room...in addition to the 6 blankets I use. And I don´t have class before 11 - crazy.