Appetizer: El Principito

Think about this like a decadent truffle for your mind.

Personal Summer Challenge: Read literary work in Spanish. First on the list? El Principito.

I don't know. There's something about reading texts in a second language that's somehow more satisfying than reading in English. That "something" was a something I couldn't quite put my finger these past two school years, through Bodas de Sangre and "La Mu~neca (does anyone know how to type this properly) Menor."

However, through some form of graced epiphany, I think I've found out what that "something" was. It's the same stuff of Dali's art that keeps us thinking, the same stuff that makes truffle oil exquisite, the same stuff of pond water under a microscope - the appeal to imagination.

I'll be frank in saying that I'm probably not the most fluent Spanish student around; and that's exactly why I love Spanish literary work so much. What gets lost in translation, I can search in a handy-dandy dictionary. Beyond this are the juicy multi-entendres, the idiomatic expressions, the connotations that make us wonder whether "ojos como piscinas" means the eyes are deep like pools or turquoise like pools or chlorine-shot or any sort of combination of the three.

All this in mind, I challenge you - read something in a second language. At first, like truffles, the challenge might smell funny, even bitter and difficult - but it's that touch of flavor, the kind that identify as salty, sour, or sweet - that makes you crave for more. The kind that makes you a connoseiur. Bon Apetit.