La devoradora de libros

Abstract

Sir Francis Bacon is credited with the famous phrase: "Some books are tried, others eaten, very few chewed and digested." Put it in your web browser and you will see that it refers you to at least ten thousand pages. The phrase is so resounding, so visual and so powerful that it has been used as a slogan or claim for book fairs, bookstores, publishers and marketers of all kinds. There are countless times that it has rolled through social networks, adding to that endless collection of evocative sayings and quotes that seek to move and have someone be moved. There is not even complete assurance that Bacon actually pronounced the phrase at some point, and it certainly does not seem that he left it in writing. However, I have to admit that I like it, probably because it establishes a fairly direct connection with the act of eating and, in turn, with the feeling of hunger and, at the same time, with the different ways we have to satiate it. I recognize myself in it, in short, because I too, throughout my reading life, have tried books, I have compulsively devoured them or I have savored and enjoyed them as if they were the last delicacy that I had to eat.