Collected Fictions

I really wanted to like this collection of short works by Borges, but I just could not get in to it. Maybe I should try to read in Spanish rather than listen to the English audiobook. Every now and then I would perk up and catch something of interest, but for the most part it just flowed in one ear and out the other. 

Borges in 90 Minutes

I need to read more Borges. He loved to "mock" literature by creating some of the major works. I love the idea of creating a response or a summary to fictional work. Just get to the point instead of wasting time with all the work. This short work has piqued my interested to seek out more of Borges' works.

Collected Fictions

I like Borges' style. I expected something much more pretentious, but I was pleasantly surprised. Borges has a playful knack for blending fiction with "nonfiction". The characters in a story may talk with an author. He may also provide a backstory for events in fictional works or even describe how something really happened. Characters may suddenly have something "magical" happen in a realistic story. This seems to be at the roots of magical realism, yet it is also reminded me of Kafka. In this collection we get the famous "Library of Babel" as well as many other "stories". There are a few that fall flat, but even those have their redeeming points.