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Spanish books or books in Spanish?
An update to this story, Stauffacher changed the title following my suggestion! Credit where it is due. The picture to the left is from April 2021, the one on the right is from August 2021, go check it out.
The shelf labelled “Libros Españoles” holding books in Spanish irritates me.
I now challenge the salesperson every time I see it.
“Excuse me, would you place Friederich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, and other Swiss authors under “German Books”? I asked the salesman at Stauffacher in Bern yesterday.
He looked puzzled, so I tried to explain,
“You see, many of the books you have on this shelf are not “Spanish books”. Take Isabel Allende, she’s Chilean, Borges, Argentinian, García Márquez, Colombian, Vargas Llosa, Neruda…oh, you even have Joël Dicker here in Spanish, he’s Swiss. There is a difference between Books in Spanish and Spanish Books. Just like there’s a difference between livres en français and livres français, Bücher auf Deutsch and Deutsche Bücher, books in English and…
I like to think if books had legs they’d walk right off that shelf. Perhaps it would be García Marquez who would start the revolution, “Oye Borges, vámonos de aquí que tu y yo no somos españoles” (Hey Borges, let’s get out of here; you and I are not Spanish). Of course, some say Borges…
