E.M. Welsh

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E.M. is Currently Reading

E.M. Welsh is currently reading

Pedro Páramo

by Juan Rulfo

bookshelves: 2025, mexican-lit, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in August 2025

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E.M. Welsh said: " It’s impossible to rate this book, which though short was anything but easy, without also rating the translation by Douglas J. Weatherford. I’ve wanted to read this book in Spanish for over half my lifetime, and yet reading it in English made me awar It’s impossible to rate this book, which though short was anything but easy, without also rating the translation by Douglas J. Weatherford. I’ve wanted to read this book in Spanish for over half my lifetime, and yet reading it in English made me aware how deliberately difficult that may be. I’m not used to novels that constantly ask me “what do I understand?” and it’s hard to describe the ways in which Pedro Páramo challenges its readers without wading into the ghost town of Comala yourself. There is no easy path or simple way forward. It’s not a page-turner and many nights when I found time to read, I spent it rereading what I had read the night before. Though my pace with this book was comically slow for its length, I can see why Gabriel Garcia Marquez read it in one night, then immediately started over. One reading is quite simply not enough for this book to even begin to comprehend the richness of the text.

As an English reader reading this book in English, I was still challenged in a way that I am optimistic is reflective of how Rulfo intended. Weatherford was extremely intentional about how he translated the text for his English audience, and I have a deep respect for the ways in which he insisted on mirroring the Spanish text as closely as possible so as to evoke the feeling and ambiguity this novel portrays. From keeping the original punctuation to using the subjunctive tense (an unnatural one in English), I felt as I was as close to the original text as possible, stumbling my way through Comala and all its ghosts like a Spanish speaker might. No translation is perfect, but I have to applaud Weatherford’s work here.

I only take one star off for my own personal enjoyment. This was not an easy read, and if I were to compare it to any book I’ve read, it’d be Blood Meridian, simply because it’s not a book that will hold your hand, nor would it ever deign to do so. I’m a native Texan, and I still only learned to love Blood Meridian in (two!) literature courses on the novel. As you can imagine, the language barrier, my own lack of historical context, and a few family emergencies, made this a challenging read to really plow through.

But would I read it again? I must! ...more "

progress:

(page 56 of 144)
"The second reading of this book is stunning so far. Consider it a requirement to read it twice, back-to-back. I both wish I could go back and relieve the confusion of the first reading, a feeling I know I’ll never know again with this story, yet also am acutely aware my excitement and appreciation now is only possible by a second read through." — Aug 25, 2025 11:10PM

Aug 23, 2025 09:37PM · see review

E.M. Welsh is currently reading

Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams

by Peter Merholz

bookshelves: currently-reading, 2025, work

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Jun 16, 2025 11:58AM

E.M.’s Quotes

“A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
― John Milton, Areopagitica

tags: books

277 likes

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

tags: inspirational

3203 likes

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
― Anais Nin

tags: anais-nin, qoutes-on-writing, writing

9908 likes

“Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

tags: friendship

88036 likes

“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”
― Anaïs Nin

tags: men, women

9411 likes

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