hojas

The same word for pages and leaves, I have been surrounded by hojas and hojas of colorful liveliness. Books. Parks. Books in the park.

It’s beautiful and refreshing to be part of a community so entrenched in  the importance of literacy, and story telling, an languages, and sharing.

Recently I went to the Biblioteca Nacional.

Then, I spent some moments traipsing through the new shelves and endless rooms in the newly opened public library in Retiro, and got a little inspiration from the speaking walls.

I always enjoy riding the metro seeing the little posters with a dose of daily literature or poetry?

(images via librosdelacalle. check out the link “textos” to see more bit of literature.)

And of course the always open feria de libro on la Cuesta del Moyano, where you can find lovely smelling used editions. Especially on a sunny, fresh, stroll worthy afternoon.

But what I’ve really been waiting for is la feria del libro de Madrid.

(photo via feria del libro de madrid)

For teachers, learners, and vivacious readers, book fairs are like finding a gold mine. And if you happen to be living in Europe and get the chance to go to a huge book fair in the middle of the city, in a once royal park, with authors and illustrated characters signing books, technology pavilions, and children’s pavilions – well, now we’re talking.

I’ve been looking forward to the book fair, and going with a group of friends proved to be a joyful experience, of entering childhood again.

I found my soulmates – a small fox who reads books and when he is finished salts them, and munches them up. And a little red fish who explores the library (El pez rojo).

We followed the turtle, and the elephant, and the giraffe, and even the rat, up to the moon.

We met a little pirate girl who drinks rum and kisses her teddy bear goodnight, and falls in love with the little boy who is all the while criticizing her story (El libro mas genial que he leído).

We made one sentence stories.We quizzed ourselves, are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader style.

It is by entering those magical places and letting them expand and shape the contours of your brain, that you can piece together the inconsistencies that we call existence, and find sense in the senseless.