I discovered the Tarot cards (below) in my early-summer reading when I read Club Dumas by Arturo Reverte Perez.  It’s the story of a modern-day book detective who will hunt down and bring back rare first-edition books for anyone who can pay his price.  It’s a murder-mystery-thriller.  Anything goes for this book detective.  He’ll bring you back your book.  At one point in Club Dumas the book detective – Lucas Corso is his name – read clues in Tarot cards that guide him to his treasure.  The name of the club is based on the famed Alexander Dumas who wrote The Count of Monte Christo. I know the author Arturo Perez-Reverte from having read his novel La Reina del sur. In this story (and telenovela) reading The Count of Monte Christo changes a young woman’s life. Before reading this book, she is on the run for a crime she didn’t commit. After she reads The Count of Monte Christo, she makes the decision to never run away from anyone or anything again. This Dumas guy, I’m thinking, he must be pretty good.

For many of us, reading doesn’t come easy. I know that.  I read my student comments on the class discussion board. Many of them don’t have the experience of everyday novel reading.  Many of them don’t see the point.  I mean they are studying to be cops and nurses.  Who has the time to read?  As an English teacher, I do my best to establish and maintain a reading culture in the classroom.  If my students don’t like to read, I hope I can find them a groove that will make their reading easier. On my class blog,  I provide a lot of reading news and notes, and I share my own reading experience. One day, I will write about my trip to Mexicali’s Zona Centro to buy my pack of Tarot cards. I’ve sent away for Tarot books off the internet. One day I plan to give a Spanish-language Tarot reading to a friend or neighbor.  Is my Spanish getting any better?  Quien sabe, but maybe my luck will change.  Jaja.

Up above, at the top of this post, that’s Teresa Mendoza. She will soon become La reina del sur.  She's reading The Count of Monte Christo in a Spanish Women's Prison. I read La Reina del sur in both English and Spanish, and then I watched the telenovela. This was a long time ago. I tried to follow it with El club Dumas, but my Spanish just wasn’t good enough. I had to drop it. But I’m doing better today. This summer I read the entire novel – 444 pages.  I must be doing something right. I will tell my students to READ…READ…READ.  This semester, I hope we can all get MESMERIZED together.

Paz,

JL