Umberto Eco <How to Travel with a Salmon>

"There followed ten minutes of delightful, thrilling transgression. I was Lucifer, arrived from the world of shadows, and I illuminated everyone with the blazing torch of sin." - Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco always has a special meaning to me. His writing has been a something peculiar unlike other writers; he seems original to me. He is talented and His writing is amazing. He is the kind of writer I can't take my eyes off. So he came to be the one who affects the title and the category names of this blog. (Susan Sontag and Haruki Murakami are the other two.)

Our first meeting was on the internet like one between Murakami and me. (I'm a child of internet age!) I had read at that time How to Travel with a Salmon, the title essay of this book. The title attracted my attention, and I got to know my feeling is not wrong. He always stroke home. His parody suggested Athena who would come to be known as the goddess of wisdom and war because of his cunning intelligence.

Most of the other essays keep up similar tone, and filled with sly observations on travel, the journey of a child eating ice cream, inconvenient modern technology, the foul human society, and the busyness of people in general.

I think, How to Travel with a Salmon is a very good short introduction to Eco’s brisk and clever writing style. Before reading The name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum, If you read this first, it help you understand Eco. I can assure that this book definitely made you laugh out. You'll surely return to it many times.

It’s also easy to carry since this is lightweight, compact and the essays are short enough to be read anywhere. You may always carry this like its cover illustration.  :)

There are many books and stories to which continually I return, and this will become the one among them.