Eagerly awaited preorder: The Book of Imaginary Beings

[substitute]

The Book of Imaginary Beings, by Jorge Luis Borges, Peter Sis (Illustrator), Andrew Hurley (translator).

Borges is one of my favorite writers. Hyperintelligent, funny, bizarre, fantastic without being self-indulgent, cryptic without being annoying, calm. civilized, and an obsessive craftsman of words. I want to learn Argentine Spanish just to read him in the original, sometimes.

This work is a compendium of 116 imaginary beings from myths and stories, some well-known and others deeply obscure, some from traditions and others from more recent authors. It's almost literally magical to me. If you don't have the cash or the interest to buy it, there's a nicely done web interpretation of the book. A sample: The Eater of the Dead.

Comments

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Apparently, just before he died, Edward Gorey signed up to illustrate an edition of the Book of Imaginary Beings. I would have loved to have seen that.

[rpkrajewski.livejournal.com]

I keep my copy in the Library of Babel, but I can never seem to find it.

[eyeteeth.livejournal.com]

I must have this book.

bad joke o' wednesday

[threepunchstuff.livejournal.com]

Hey in that book of imaginary beings, is there a chapter on Guy Who Puts the Toilet Seat Down? Am I right ladies or what??!!

Re: bad joke o' wednesday

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I bet he likes that airline food. What is it with that stuff?