A Reading Diary (22 page)

Up to a certain point, this is true of every book we love. We think we approach it from a distance, watch it part its protecting covers, observe the unfolding of its tale from a safe seat in the audience, and we forget how much the survival of the characters, the very life of the story, depends on our presence as readers—on our curiosity, on our desire to recall a detail or to be surprised by an absence—as if our own capacity for love had created, from a tangle of words, the person of the beloved.

I don’t know yet to what book Machado’s words will lead me.

Thanks to early readers of the diary: Alice Manguel, Edith Sorel, Susan Swan, Katherine Ashenburg, Marie-Catherine Vacher, Hans-Jürgen Balmes, Michelle Lapautre, Derek Johns, Carmen Criado, Jonathan Galassi, Gena Gorrell, John Sweet, and most especially Louise Dennys. Many thanks to CS Richardson for the exquisite design of the book. And to the team at Westwood Creative Artists, as always.

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are my own.
A.M
.

Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor,
ALBERTO MANGUEL
is the author of several award-winning books, including
A Dictionary of Imaginary Places
and
A History of Reading
. He was born in Buenos Aires, moved to Canada in 1982, and now lives in France, where he was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. His most recent book is
With Borges
.