I want to start reading lit in Spanish (foreign language). Give me some relatively easy prose Spanish lit...

I want to start reading lit in Spanish (foreign language). Give me some relatively easy prose Spanish lit, but good Spanish lit, that I can read in original in order to hone my Spanish, but also hone my literary patricianism at the same time.

my spanish mate said don quixote is harder to read for him in spanish than in english.

Cervantes makes it a joke to use archaic spanish for the don to make him seem that much more crazy. (Imagine shakespeare using what he considered old english as a laugh).

yeah, pic obviously unrelated, I guessed so too. I'd actually rather some newer stuff (as in, the last 100-150 years) but I'm not picky in any way if it's good and relatively easy for a self-taught Spanish learner to read.

might be helpful

bump for literary suggestions

not really into that, but thanks

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Pedro Páramo

Miragimoso Tranjala

Carlos Fuentes - Aura

Borges' prose is very easy to read yet still teaches you new words often enough (no, not just in the vein of "heresiarch" and "gaucho").
If you're just starting and even short stories are too painful to keep focused on, try "Cuentos breves y extraordinarios", anthology collected by Borges too

Also this

This is bait btw

ty guys

>Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language.[2]

I guess I should start with some Borges shorts stories then, and then later on take up Pedro Paramo if I really liked Borges. I'm partial about the second person narrative in Aura, although to be honest it will probably be a good experience for me to practice an intuitive feel for the second person grammar at least : (, so I guess I'll go with that first if Pedro Paramo is too hard. /blog

I'm going afk now, but keep 'em coming guys

La fiesta del Chivo- Mario Vargas Llosa.

There was a reedition of Don Quijote recently that adapted all the old.fashioned terms and modified all the words that are not used in spanish anymore, at first I thought it was a stupid idea to make it accesible to idiots, but I read some of it and it looked pretty good, if you want to read it you might want to consider reading that version

anyway to your question something like La sombra del viento might be ok

The original is portuguese and shit btw

Waco de los Finneganos

...

>my spanish mate said don quixote is harder to read for him in spanish than in english.

There must be something wrong with him. I grew up in the US with Mexican parents so my Spanish is subpar but Don Quijote is pretty easy to read. Sure some words are strange or archaic but if you are a native Spanish speaker it should be a proverbial piece of cake. The old spanish parts are pretty understandable too. He basically changes h's to f's and a few other things.

As an example, Shakespeare is much more dated for English speakers than Don Quijote is for Spanish speakers. Spanish has changed less than English has in the same space of time.
For OP, I would recommend Gary Jennings Azteca (originally written in English) and 1000 years of Solitude. These were the first two books in Spanish I read. Like I said above, I grew up as a native speaker of Spanish but I didn't use it as much as English so it took a little effort to start reading in Spanish. Don Quijote really is worth a go when you get to it though. Mashallah, beautiful piece of work it is.

Studied Spanish in college and we did mostly pretty complicated shit. Borges and Julio Cortazar have some great short stories that are always easier than novels.

If you're trying to practice Spanish though, I'd recommend reading some poetry. Pablo Neruda has some good ones. His "La Infinita" has gotten me laid with Latinas actually. Specifically the last few lines. But in general he's great

>Pablo Neruda
accessible and good, I double this recommendation. I cannot confirm it will get you casual sex.

"Para eres un tesoro mas cargado de imensidad que el mar y sus racimos. Y eres blanca y azul y extensa como la tierra en la vendimia"

If you pitch that line correctly and follow through the motions, you will get laid

Para mi*

Lo siento amigos

OP here, thanks guys.

To sum up, Borges and Cortazar short stories to start, then some of these magic realism novels, or the non-magic realism ones if I get bored with magic realism, maybe some Pablo Neruda as a break from prose, and then on to the Don Quixote if I'm good enough not to need the adapted version. Sounds good.

Felisberto Hernández. "Nadie encendía las lámparas".

this

also anything from Borges and Garcia Marquez (they are probably the most famous latin american writers ever) their books and short stories are really easy to read

>Guy asks for spanish lit
>People recommend southamericans
Fucking lit

Read "La regenta" and Pio Baroja. Some Civil War - Post Civil War poetry like Miguel Hernandez or Antonio Machado. You could give "Juan Tenorio" or "Fuente Ovejuna" a go if you are into that kind of reading, is pretty good and easy to understand.

Don't fucking learn spanish by reading Cortázar Pablo Neruda and Borges. You will get a distorted ugly version of spanish that wont please south americans nor spaniards. Stick to actual Spanish.

OP obviously meant "Spanish language" lit, you automatic autists.
The difference is irrelevant in this case and largely comes down to pronunciation, which OP can adapt to what he knows. And even then, the whole world considers South American Spanish easier on the ear. Nobody likes your horrible lisp.

OP here.

I actually have been advised to lay off the Latin American film and TV, but didn't think it mattered with the written word. If there are any significant systemic differences between the Spanish/Latino grammars, I would maybe really even consider ditching Latin American lit for now desu. Vocab obv isn't a problem, I would expect that anyway. But are there really any?

Would you guys say that the differences between Spanish Spanish/Latino Spanish are bigger or smaller than with British English/American English?

bigger

>If there are any significant systemic differences between the Spanish/Latino grammars

thee aren't any.

>smaller than with British English/American English

about the same.

The difference between written and spoken word overrules the one you would find between Spanish and Latino Spanish. Nobody talks the way a writer writes.