Here goes a list of interesting books I’ve read. Of course, I’ve read more than these, but I only include the ones that have not diminished my average attention span so as to make me lose my faith in books. Some of the titles are clickable, as they are available in online form (hooray for public domain).

• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann: Or how Hans Castorp realized that a three-week stay is a laughable thing in this timeless place that never ceases to diminish the chances of going back to “the world below”.
• Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller: No comment. Really, no comment at all.
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A series of unfortunate events following an unfortunate creation that came from an unstoppable obsession. Got that? Good.
• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli: Principality 101, with classic and then-current examples of what to do to gain, preserve or lose a state.
• El túnel (The Tunnel) by Ernesto Sabato: A story of love, obsession, deceit and the unfortunate outcome of death.
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: A detailed story on the 1959 Clutter family murder. Very descriptive and interesting throughout.
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Wonderful book that presents the reader with a “perfect” society in which humans are engineered, conditioned and classified in castes depending on their assigned purpose in life, where traditions and emotions and truth are suppressed in favor of happiness.
• The cases of C. Auguste Dupin by Edgar Allan Poe: Three short stories featuring one of the first fictional detectives, Auguste Dupin, who uses his deductive prowess to quickly solve crimes that have kept the Parisian police baffled.
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding: A group of schoolboys try to survive on an island. A small-scale example of society, war, and (attempts at) leadership.
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: A man finds himself stranded on an island, where he spends nearly three decades of his life.
• Over by Ramón Marrero Aristy: A first person narrative from the point of view of a storekeeper working in a sugarcane-processing central. Tells the harsh reality of the early 20th century Dominican sugarcane-based industry.
• Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen by Jules Verne: Dick Sand, a 15-year-old cabin boy, suddenly finds himself in command of the Pilgrim, a fishing brigantine. A realistic tale of survival, exploration, slavery (and luck).
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien: The beginning of Tolkien’s fantasy epic on the adventures of a Hobbit (Frodo Baggins) and his Company, in a quest to destroy the ring of Power long sought by the evil Sauron.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien: Tells the story of what happens after the Company is split up, the fierce battle at Helms Deep, the further adventures of Frodo, who must overcome both the agony of carrying the Ring and the weariness of his long journey in the dark land of Mordor.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: The long awaited (both by its readers and its characters) conclusion of the War of the Ring, in which the One Ring is cast into the fires from which it originated, and peace is restored to Middle-earth at the end of an Age.
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: The beginning of a classic…duology? Well, it’s a nice thing to read. Original art by John Tenniel (supervised by Carroll himself) only makes the story better.
• Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll: The sequel to the famous Alice book. This time, Alice travels through a twisted chess-themed world where things work backwards. Features art by John Tenniel in a more refined form.