Labyrinths

Very bad paper quality. Returned back.

Good book

average stories

Highly disappointed by the quality of paper Penguin used to publish this book.Too substandard.Very poor buy for this amount.This book is for a life time. But the papers used evokes pity.

very good

best book i have ever read...

Sadly this is not borges at his best

Potential buyers/readers should beware that the majority of this book of Borges stories (the first 207 pages to be exact) have been published separately under the title of Ficciones or Fictions.This collection of "Fictions, Essays and Parables" are essential reading for anyone who reads Borges. I am not his biggest fan but I found much of this book quite enthralling but have to admit I found it difficult to follow at times. Overall a nice volume by a highly acclaimed writer.

This is probably the first serious work of literature I have ever read, and although I know next to nothing about literature, I wouldn't shy away from predicting it to be the best I will ever read. The sheer imagination present in this book, in both the 'creative, wacky' sense of the word and in the more literal sense of an ability to deal with abstract ideas, is astonishing.If you like anything slightly unconventional, enjoy thinking about philosophical problems, or even simply like short stories,you will like this collection, without doubt. Highlights include stories about an infinite library with every possible book in every possible language (including meanigless letter combinations), and the mad cults that develop as a result of the frustration people have in finding any coherent language at all, and the story of a man who can remeber literally everything he experiences (take 'literally' completely literally). You'll know already if that sounds appealing, but who am I to even attempt to describe the works in this book. It really does have to be read to be appreciated. It is worth buying just for the possibility you will enjoy it, because if you do, it's incredible, and even if you don't, you can still move on safe in the knowledge there's (almost certainly) nothing quite like Borges you will ever read which could possibly provoke your bad memories of it!

Essential works from the Godfather of Metafiction. The stories read like the prose equivalents of paintings by Magritte, De Chirico, Delvaux or Escher. Perhaps they lose a tiny bit in translation, but their effects remain uniquely tantalising.

good condition

Fantastic collection of short narratives. Highly recommended. Borges has the ability to bend your mind into various vicissitudes of time and space. Mind blowing.