When I approached Mireya she had just put one book down and was starting to read the flap of the other. It was a big one! Auditions (A Memoir) by Barbara Walters. I had been seeing and hearing alot about it lately. Mireya tells me it just came out and she just got it. I asked what compelled her to get this book. Was she a fan of Barbara Walters? Was she swept by the publicity surrounding it? Turns out she works for Telemundo (Spanish broadcast television network. Upon hearing this I wondered if she knew the Mayor's "mistress"). She had always wanted to be a reporter and now that she works for Telemundo (she graduated from intern-dom), she doesn't know if it's for her. So she hopes that this book will motivate her, give her some insight on how to maneuver and make it through the news business. "I want to feel the passion in this competitive field!"
Since she is looking to this seasoned veteran as her guiding light I wondered if she read other books by reporters. Incidentally, she has! The last "industry" book she's read is by Jorge Ramos, a leading Spanish broadcaster competitor station Univision. Mireya absolutely LOVES his stuff. Although she has never met him in person, she cannot wait to finally meet the man face to face!
Which segues me towards her second book. Mireya had been watching Jorge Ramos' Sunday Morning Show and he had recommended Gioconda Belli's El Infinito En La Palma De La Mano - translation: Infinity in the Palm of the Hand. It's a fictional account of Adam and Eve. She just finished reading the first 20 some odd pages and enjoying it so far. The book gets the reader to understand why women are how they are versus men. It starts off with Adam. Mireya started raving about the first line then thumbed through the pages until she found Chapter One. The first line read "Y fue."
Naturally, I'm sitting there trying to conjure up my memories of Spanish class but before I could attempt to translate it I am told it means, "And so it goes..." She doesn't know why but those opening words opened the flood gates to a now engaging book. Apparently it's been really tough for her to get into a book lately. The last book she's been trying to get through (for a while now) is Isabel Allende's The Daughters of Fortune (en espanol). It's the 2nd book in Allende's series. Mireya had started reading it in English on a trip to Europe, was turned off by it, and then she thought that a copy en espanol would be a better read (she tells me that reading in Spanish flows better for her). She had found a copy in a little bookstore in Madrid and she was excited by her discovery! She could now finally get through the book! Alas, even a Spanish version didn't do the trick. Now the book lives on her bedside table where she means to pick it up every night before bed but still hasn't gotten around to it. Magical realism just isn't for her, she guesses, because she has the same outcome with Garcia Masquez books. 100 Years of Solitude? Not so much. She admits the writing in the genre is magnificent but she feels things just drag on.
We exchanged info and I noticed The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz in her bag. I told her how my best friend is into spirituality (like her) and how she swears by Don Miguel's books and made me read them. Mireya likes those types of books, too. Light reads and great when she is relaxing at a spa. She admits to being a slow reader but she seems to zip through the Ruiz books.
Have you read a book in order to re-motivate/re-inspire your creative and career juices?
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