[Heteronym]

…the conversations with Borges were what, in my mind, conversations should always be: about books and about the clockwork of books, and about the discovery of writers I had not read before, and about ideas that had not occurred to me, or which I had glimpsed only in a hesitant, half-intuited way that, in Borges’s voice, glittered and dazzled in all their rich and somehow obvious splendour.

This is Borges.

Borges breathed literature, it ran in his veins and I dare say it provided him more nourishment than any sumptuous meal ever could. I own a two-volume edition of his radio conversations with the poet Osvaldo Ferrari, and no matter whatever topic Ferrari chose to begin the conversation with, Borges would always find a way to bring it back to literature.

I so understand what Manguel means about the discovery of writers. To Borges I owe making acquaintances with G.K. Chesterton, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Leopoldo Lugones, Arthur Machen, Dino Buzzati, Rudyard Kipling, Giovani Papini, Lord Dunsany. He rehabilitated for me writers I had given up on, like Henry James, Eça de Queiroz, Franz Kafka, Daniel Defoe. I have a long list of writers I want to try just on account of Borges' recommendations.

Reading Borges is more informative than visiting a library.

But what was in it contained “the essence of Borges’s reading” - encyclopaedias, dictionaries, volumes of epic poetry, and novels by Joyce, Kipling, Chesterton - and Manguel also provides a sizeable list of those Borges rejected (e.g. Proust, Balzac, García Márquez).

Joyce seems such an awkward name there. I don't remember Borges ever singing praises about him. In fact he must be the only writer ever to admit not understanding Finnegan's Wake and claiming he'd rather wait for the explanatory guide; he also argued what Joyce had tried in that novel Lewis Carroll had done before and better. This sure filled my heart with joy.

So Borges didn't like Gabo? I find that amazing. If you have the time, Stewart, kindly add a few more names Borges rejected. I have a morbid curiosity for this type of trivia.