Book Fair of Madrid (take 3, and 4, and...)

Well, it's almost gone, but I think it's over for me this year.

I went there on Friday and again on Saturday.

It's was a nice bounty (hehe):

• ¡Devuélveme mis legiones! (Give Me My Legions Back), by Spanish writer José Manuel García Torres, about the Varus's Disaster; it looked interesting, I'll let you know.
  
• A nice 1958 pocket edition of Poema del Cid, (Poem of Cid) which is an ancient Spanish and modern Spanish rendition of the 1207 anonymous poem written by Per Abbat: remember this year it's the 7th centenary!
  
• Sarajevo, diario de un éxodo, (Sarajevo, diary of an exode) by Dževad Karahasan, about the siege of the city in Bosnia-Herzegovine, and life before, during and after the war over there, it looked to good to miss.
  
• Irlanda del Norte, historia de un conflicto, (Northern Ireland, History of a Conflict) by Luis Antonio Sierra, a historical reporter, about the Historical sequence of events that framed the North Ireland conflict up today, and where things can go. I got this one signed by the author, who looked very nice and interested in our studying Irish and our project to create a Celtic culture association... Hehe :-)
  
• Mil suspiros, mil rebeliones (A thousand Sighs, a Thousand Rebellions) by Christiane Bird, about the Iraq Kurdistan and its people, the Kurds, before, during and after the War of Iraq, by testimonials and the author's own experience over there. Again, it looked too good to let go (this one was not on the Fair, just on my way, and thus it counts).
  
• Conquistadores, emires y califas, (Conquerors, emirs and califas) by Eduardo Manzano Moreno, about the Omeya Dinasty and the formation of Al-Andalus, most of the Iberian territory (including the Balears) since the 711 year (until 1492, although the Omeya lasted until the end of the X Century). The author is a Professor on the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, one of the oldest Spanish scientific insttutions) and his point of view (war and economic control as keys of social articulation) looked interesting (he tries to critically review the POVs about both christians and muslins of the time), and after reading al-Mayurqy, which I'm about to finish, I got interested in this time period of which we know so little in general in Spain (at least from my own schooling experience!).
  
• La cocina del Cid (Cid's cooking), by Miguel Ángel Almodóvar, a book about Cid's routes and his medieval recipes, another really interesting book, which contextualizes History, and the mundane of it, through a delicions plan... ;-) This one is also signed by his author, who seemed a very nice and approachable man, I will certainly try dome of those recipes! Yum!
  
• Jamie's Italian (in Spanish), by Jamie Oliver, my last times favourite cooker. This one is a heavy huge book (I can tell!) about, well, you guessed! Italian food. It's also about Italian off-turist culture and peoples, and with Jamie's style, it's gotta be great! :-)
  
• La escritura árabe es fácil (Arabian scripting is easy), by Nicolás Weber, a practical scripting book to learn to write using the Arabian alphabet... It's well designed and looks very hands-on, which I liked.
  
• Almogávares (Almogavars), by Ricardo de Isabel Martínez, about the Arago-catalonian soldiers that shook the world about the beginning of the XIV Century... I have already read about them, and the book looks easy-going and well documented, I'll let you know... Desperta, ferro!
  

Briefing, this year's FDL07 Madrid has been really satisfactory, and I have only left a dozen or so books I'd like to have but, well, I cannot have them all, not enough time to read them and to avoid the plot-bunnies, anyway, and it's cheaper this way...

It's raining like it's the end of the world right now, a huge storm over Madrid, it's beautiful, but even the cat has run under the bed, I'm the only silly on the house...

Lastly, I did my Irish exam on Thursday: Ithink it was pretty good enough, but I don't yet know; anyway it was fun to do (specially the talking part, I had to tell a story for some 5 or 6 minutes, and then we had to make a conversation for some other 8 or 10, that was a bit embarrasing at times, but I think we got okay out of it: a little bit of dignity remaining... :-)

And that's enough blogging for a day: I've discharged my backpack of Irish notes and books, and from FDL07 books, and got my trusty Psion 5mx and novel notes back: I dunno if I'll retake The Lybian or Revolt!, but I'll let you know and keep you updated.

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