gaia books
THE GOOD
the best writers & translators
THE BAD
Avoid the worst
Reads
THE RARE
venture in the
untranslated
about gaia books
​​Inspired by Gaia, the Greek goddess of the Earth and a symbol of fertility and nurturing, this site aims to explore how culture, love, and sexuality are intricately interwoven with the very essence of what it means to be human. Gaia, who unites all living beings in an interconnected web of life, serves as a metaphor of a reading experience that becomes a literary cosmos for linguistic and intellectual freedom. The ethos of this project is to celebrate human connection and the wonder of nature whilst sharing a common humanity.
Gaia Books takes a holistic approach, diversity is the raw material of life, and when you reflect it in your reading your view of the world, and yourself, will expand. Therefore, a wide range of different colours and flavours are covered throughout this site. Books can entertain us, teach us and inspire us, the only criterion is, as once Seneca said: 'It does not matter how many books you have, but how good the books that you have are.' But in order to find the best, someone needs to sort the chaff from the wheat, and that is where Gaia Books can assist you. If you would like to save some valuable time and expand your search resources, you can rest assured that every effort will be made to present a curated list of books that are worth your time and intelligence.
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Are you among those who recognise that great popular fiction and literature can be found beyond the shelves of best sellers and literary prizes? My detective work during my travels and web surfing help me discover rare finds that are worth reading in a foreign language. Do you speak Spanish, French, German or Persian? Explore untranslated literature still not available in the English language.
Not all literary pearls are written in the language of Shakespeare!
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NAVIGATION MENU
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The website presents multiple pathways from a multilingual approach in English, Spanish, French, and German. Articles written in Persian will feature on the blog.
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The main menu offers categories such as Gaia (with subcategories: The Good, The Bad, The Rare, Book Club, Read the World.) plus thematic menus like Books in Translation (with subdivisions: Anglosphere, Hispanosphere, Francosphere, Germansphere, Non-Fiction), Sex Education and Iranology, with their respective subsections, and Articles. Before accessing a subcategory, click on the category which will present an introduction to the theme.
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The homepage prominently displays genre tags—Children’s, Romance, Women Writers, Fantasy, Classics, Black Authors,—and encourages visitors to explore them by directly clicking on the titled boxes.
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CATALOGUE BY COUNTRY
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Dedicated country-level pages where each country has its own page with a brief context on travelling the country as a book hunter with literary and film recommendations.
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BOOK LISTINGS
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The Books in Translation section is subdivided by linguistic spheres where the same book has been published in English, Spanish, French and German. Every sphere is further subdivided into countries which may be expanded progressively.
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Under the subcategory Non-Fiction the section Works offers parallel translations. However, Topics features books that are not necessarily translations but address the same or similar topics.
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In Sex Education and Iranology book listings will not correspond to translated works in the four working languages of the site. Coincidentally, the same work may be displayed in more than one of these languages. This approach applies to the book listings in the rest of the website.
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ARTICLES
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The Articles menu is rich in essays and perspectives that invite the reader to leave thoughtful reflections in the comment boxes.
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BLOG
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​​​​As on any blog, posts will be labelled with tags that can aid narrowing down any search. The multilingual approach of the blog will remain the same as with the rest of the site, with the addition of Persian.
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about me
I make love to books with ardor, in different languages. It's sexier, and an effective way to acquire a gifted tongue. My fascination about languages, other than Tantra, seduced me long ago. I speak Spanish, English and French (I studied Translation to BA and MA level in London), and I'm learning German. As you can imagine, learning new languages to read foreign literature, and even write it, is like marriage—I'm an aspiring exophonic writer in English. Once immersed in a new tongue, it's a continual labour of love, from which I refuse to get divorced. Did I say four languages? Not quite, I'm on my way to acquiring a fifth, because life learning is a never-ending adventure.
My vision is driven by the idea that books can transform our shadow into light, for they contain the secret of life; the idea that in order to understand the human experience one needs to explore how we originated, and the mechanisms of our miseries and complexities.
Depraved women can be good lovers, especially of the written word. One of my commitments is to fight sexual taboos by disseminating a multidisciplinary education on human sexuality through the best books of their genre. But, ultimately, with my passion for languages, challenge the publishing anglosphere for being chauvinistic and short-sighted. In truth, the English literary world of translation is less enriched than in other countries that have a long tradition in bringing foreign literature to the fore, for its corpus falls short of integrating a comparable volumen of international writers. As a translator and as part of Gaia Books' initiative, I aim to bridge the cultural gap by championing underrepresented literary voices.
Can you read in at least two languages? Then you're a cut above the monolingual reader, but, of course, you know that.​ Polyglot or not, I hope you find new reads you enjoy on this website and, who knows, one day I may invite you to join a literary orgy at the English, French or Spanish book clubs I run in London or online reading clubs.
Perhaps, you may find inspiration on this platform to venture in the learning of a foreign language, improve your sexual intelligence or read the entire world. Boredom? Never.
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​Don't hesitate to get in touch.
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