Skip to main content

100 Readers of Solitude

source
The first time I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, I was mesmerized. I stumbled at first when trying to tell the characters' similar names apart, but each one was so colorful that I found even stumbling through the names, constantly referring back to the family tree in the front of the book, irresistible. Márquez had a way of exploring humanity with his words. He captured love, failures, struggles, beauty, and ugliness, and he wove it into magic.

I found out about an event in my area called "100 Readers of Solitude." It was an event at which 100 volunteers would read from Márquez's pages in a tribute to his life and body of work. I decided to go on a day that rained in torrents. One of the readers quoted a passage about rain, saying "The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms." My favorite reading was about Remedios the Beauty, the character who makes men go mad (literally), pays no attention to "manners" or other norms for females, sews herself a cassock, shaves her head, and ascends into heaven. I myself even got up to read. I left my book and had no idea what I was doing, but I got on the small stage and let fate decide which passage I should read out of a stranger's copy. I think it turned out pretty well.
from the reading (source)
I am currently making my way through Love in the Time of Cholera, and I have a challenge for those of you who have either never read Márquez or who need an excuse to read more (I know, why would you ever need an excuse?). I want One Hundred readers to pledge to read something written by Gabriel García Márquez. It can be a novel or a short story. Now, I know that I do not have even 100 followers, but I am still hoping to get 100 pledges (even if they're silent pledges and I never hear from you). Even if I can't quite make that number, I know it was worth the effort to get even one new reader to honor this author.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Please tell me of your experiences reading Márquez.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Depeche Mode Concert

Last night, Depeche Mode came to town. After a long week and much time spent looking forward to this, I'm glad to say I was in attendance. Justean and I ventured off to the venue with little incident this time (meaning not getting horribly lost like before). When we arrived, we noticed what a broad spectrum of fans Depeche Mode reached. There were a lot of drunken middle aged people, but besides that, there was a range of alternative types as well as more mainstream looking people. One thing is for sure that most everyone seemed excited to be there. In fact, at one point, I almost got in an altercation with a couple who was so excited, they decided to squeeze right in front of me and cut me off! Let's just say I got them to vacate my vicinity.  It was a great night for a concert. The moon shone brightly, and looming rain clouds dissipated. As for the show itself, Depeche Mode knows how to work a crowd. They sound mostly the same in concert as on their albums. They eve...
14 comments
Read more

New Hair: 20's Inspired

For my readers who have followed this blog for any considerable amount of time, you probably aren't surprised that I've changed my hair yet again! I got rid of my orange patch, and I exchanged it for a color close to my natural hue. It's been a while since I've had them, but I decided to go with bangs again.  This cut reminds me of Daisy Buchanan's in the recent Gatsby.  Daisy Buchanan I'm a fan of the Roaring Twenties. It was an age of decadence, but also an age of self-discovery. Besides, some very good authors and artists came out of that era. Speaking of 20's artists and writers, If you have not seen Midnight in Paris, then you certainly should.
13 comments
Read more

The Obituary Challenge

I've been working in The Writing Studio at Georgia State today, when a worried student came in for some assistance. She was assigned to write an obituary for her Journalism class. This obituary was to be written about the professor of her course. I'd never heard of anyone assigning something like this (probably because it's morbid), but it's very practical to learn for Journalism. From there, I had an idea. I thought what a good tag/challenge it would be for fellow bloggers to write an obituary about themselves. (not to mention a bit of morbid fun) So, Here's the rules: Link back to whoever tagged you. Put these rules in your tag.  Write an obituary about yourself (it can be as funny or as serious as you like). Write about a paragraph or two (or more if necessary) in length. You may tag up to 10 people, and be sure to link to them. Have fun, because creative writing is one of the greatest joys in life!   My Obituary:  Katie, age 18, perished on Septembe...
12 comments
Read more