Jorge Luis Borges: 5 Essential Reads

By Mariela Rosario | 08/24/2011 - 14:30 | 0 Comments

We woke up this morning to find famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges trending on Twitter and were sort of confused. We love magic realism as much as the next literary chica, but we had to get to the bottom of the trend.

Before long, we found out that Google Doodle decided to honor the late, great author on what would have been his 112th birthday. Still confused? Well, Borges (most known for his collection of shorts, The Aleph and his story The Garden of Forking Paths) may have died on June 14, 1986, but his stories have lived on and have a lot of importance for the techy set, who view his mind-bending, scientifically inclined writing as a early testament to what was to come.

In the Google Doodle (see below), The Garden of Forking Paths—in which Borges describes the future in multiple ways—is heavily referenced.

Don't know enough about Borges? Take a little time to find out with this quick guide to 5 must-reads:

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The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)

Borges' specialty was the short story and in his most famous piece—which was translated into English in 1948, garnering the writer international fame—he describes what is essentially the first conception of a hypertext novel, or a piece of writing that can be read in mutliple directions, long before the advent of the computer or the internet. This Google Doodle (shown below) celebrates The Garden of Forking Paths with a scene of an old man looking out from behind glass at scenes from the story in which he imagines the future.

Google Doodle

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