In this page I will talk about books that I am reading.

• 5 Jan 2021: First book of the year completed ! It is "The invincible" by S. Lem in the new English translation of Bill Johnson. I read about this translator in "The Guardian" sometime ago. He did a new translation of "Solaris" which is available in English only as a translation from the French translation and it is known to be not very accurate. Unfortunately, it is not possible to have this translation published in a book because of absurd copyrights. The only way is to have this on Kindle or as an audio-book, supports which are not covered by copyright, apparently. Since I do not use these devices but still rely on the good old paper, I found out that he did also the translation of "The invincible", a book I read time ago in its Italian translation and I remembered was very good. I had a great experience also this time. I read a chapter per day like watching a TV series. The interesting thing I noticed this time is that there are no women in the novel, and therefore no romantic scenes. Solaris has great women protagonists, even if not human. In this case there is no romantic plot. Only mystery and adventure. Also the book has an open ending. We are left with questions. A great theme is the impossibility of communication with alien form of life, the right of intervene in other ecosystem on alien planets. And, of course, the interaction between biological and artificial beings when the two of them can evolve through natural selection. The book is fascinating and very well written. It almost demands to become a great movie, although it should be done by a great director.

• 23 Jan 2021. A few days ago I finished reading another novel by Stanislaw Lem: "The futurological congress". I chose this one because the acclaimed translator Michael Kandel had to deal with huge number of neologism and virtuoso usage of the words. I cannot judge how faithful is the translation since I do not speak Polish. Nevertheless, I found the language used in the novel very convincing. Clearly the translator was very inspired when translating the novel. The choice of words is really good. Most of the novel is actually a dream. But it is not very clear since, from the beginning, chemicals in the air and in the water are used by the regime of the country where the congress happens to subdue the protests. What comes out is a reflection on a pharmocracy, a world where everything can be treated with pills and chemicals. Perceptions are distorted. Nobody know what he is actually eating, seeing, or feeling. The deception is complete. Although the human civilization is actually collapsing in a overpopulated world, nobody realizes it. At the end of the novel, the protagonist manages to come out of his utopic/dystopic dream to go back to the current world where there is still a chance to see what is real or not. A real tour de force. A reflection on how our perception of society can actually be distorted when we are immerse in it since our vision is polluted by non-stop news propagated by any media. Maybe we should spend some time underground with our oxygen as the protagonist of the novel.