TOPIC · 21 BOOKS

Art and culture

Books I have read about art and culture, brought together across genres, periods and countries.

VIEW IN THE CATALOGUE →

Cover of La Cultura

La Cultura

Dietrich SchwanitzAn enormous journey through the ideas, books, art and history that make up Western culture. It's ambitious and sometimes dense, but I learned a lot and it gave me references to continue reading for years.

Cover of Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women

Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women

Maya AngelouFour very short and powerful poems about safety, body and identity. I don't read much poetry, it's not my thing, but the moment I read these poems I could understand and appreciate them.

Cover of Todo lo que pudimos

Todo lo que pudimos

Thi BuiA very nice graphic memory about a Vietnamese family, the war and everything you inherit from emigration. I especially liked how it connects political history with decisions and silences in a family.

Cover of The Philosophy of Wine

The Philosophy of Wine

Béla HamvasA book about wine and women, believers and atheists, with touches of humour. Reading it left me salivating at the thought of good food and plenty of wine.

Cover of The Last Leonardo

The Last Leonardo

Ben LewisThe story of the world's most expensive painting, DaVinci's Salvator Mundi. It talks about how it was found, the doubts about its authorship, how the art world took it.

Cover of The Billionaire’s Vinegar

The Billionaire’s Vinegar

Benjamin WallaceA very entertaining story about a bottle of wine supposedly belonging to Thomas Jefferson, millionaire collectors and a world full of ego, money and possible fraud. It reads almost like a mystery novel.

Cover of Essayism

Essayism

Brian DillonI didn't expect to like it so much, a book about the essay, form and style, how its authors think and everything around it.

Cover of My Name Is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic

My Name Is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic

Charles SaatchiThe founder of Saatchi & Saatchi, an iconic advertising agency, and one of the world's leading art collectors, in this book he answers questions from journalists and the public.

Cover of Tintin - Hergé, una vida del siglo XX

Tintin - Hergé, una vida del siglo XX

Fernando CastilloI came to read about Tintin, and I've read a treatise on the history of the 20th century.

Cover of Introducción al café de especialidad

Introducción al café de especialidad

Guillermo AlvaradoA great book that summarizes very well what coffee is, the varieties, how it is grown, drying, preparations. very complete to understand all the variables that affect when making a good coffee.

Cover of Historia del rock andaluz

Historia del rock andaluz

Ignacio Díaz PérezA great book about the best musical genre that Spain has given, told by its protagonists.

Cover of Paseos de un gourmet solitario

Paseos de un gourmet solitario

Jiro Taniguchi, Masayuki KusumiIt's the second part of the manga that inspired Samurai Gourmet, a Japanese food series about food that I love (Netflix).

Cover of The Dehumanization of Art

The Dehumanization of Art

José Ortega y GassetInteresting, sometimes funny, sometimes provocative and sometimes boring, I have some items left in this collection that don't contribute to the whole.

Cover of 300 historias de palabras

300 historias de palabras

Juan GilAs the title suggests, it's the history and origin of 300 words. It's more of a reference book than to read from scratch, although I've read all the words because it's entertaining me a lot.

Cover of In Praise of Shadows

In Praise of Shadows

Junichirō TanizakiA short essay on Japanese beauty, architecture and aesthetics. It's very easy to read, it's simple and very visual. Tanizaki writes about darkness, materials, silence and everything else that loses some of its beauty when we light it up too much. Every time I read it I end up looking differently at a room, a restaurant or an everyday object.

Cover of Galgos

Galgos

María Martínez BautistaPoetry is definitely not for me.

Cover of Le dedico mi silencio

Le dedico mi silencio

Mario Vargas LlosaAfter reading this book, I am eager to get to know Peru more deeply. The novel focuses on the life of a journalist obsessed with Creole music, a discontented musician he saw at a concert, and his desire to write a book that tells his story.

Cover of Agua y Jabón

Agua y Jabón

Marta D. RiezuA pleasant book, full of small reflections on beauty, clothes, objects, taste and everyday life. It has very interesting ideas and observations, although not all reached me equally and at times it became a little scattered.

Cover of Messages from a Lost World

Messages from a Lost World

Stefan ZweigA collection of essays on European writers and artists who, for Stefan Zweig, define what Europe is as a unique entity.

Cover of Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky

Three Masters: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky

Stefan ZweigIt deserves the highest score from Dostoyevsky, which is a masterpiece, what a way to understand and explain the three authors, their characters, their relationship with their environment, and their personalities.

Cover of Los Premios Nobel de Literatura toman la palabra

Los Premios Nobel de Literatura toman la palabra

VariosA collection of acceptance speeches for the Nobel Prize in Literature. I loved it, because they talk about writing and reading and how that influenced their lives.