thirty days of sharing: day four

04. your favourite book

Just like movies, songs, or television series, picking a favourite book is not like a walk in the park or anything. Close to two years ago, I read Name of The Rose in pretty much a week or so and loved it. Loved everything about it. Since then, I've read a lot more books; some have joined the list, some haven't. Also, two years ago, I wrote this, which is probably the closest to a summary I can offer (besides the lack of mention regarding semiotics):

It's 1327 and an abbey is convicted of heresy and Brother William from somewhere England comes down to investigate a rising number of murders. On the surface, the story is a detective mission but turning each page leads to more, like the disintegration of the monastery, in which catholic universities and schools are on the rise, translating and acquiring new and old texts alike faster than the traditional abbeys with their almost mythical-like libraries and mazes. Not only that, Eco brings up issues like the fine line separating religious zealousness and religious madness, which so many spiritual figures have coined as "heretical." There are many cults and sects of the Catholic religion that Eco exposes and to the main papal authority, they are all the same, they are all heretics. But that's the thing, they're not all the same, and they may be heretical, convicted on the case that they are probably, more "zealous," more intense, more feverishly inspired by an idea that could shake the very foundation of mankind's laws of humanity and social order.

...on the topic of knowledge, Eco introduces a new face to lust, besides carnal bodily lust: the lust for knowledge, which is almost as frightening as the lust for power and ambition because it is equally dangerous and even, perhaps so, yielding any sort of knowledge for personal desire.

So there's a lot; and it sounds like really heavy material to actually read and absorb but trust me, it's in no way archaic or overtly pretentious...the writing is superb, or at least the English translation is as lucid and sublime as you can get.