will read then release

Informative, sometimes graphic account of bullfighting - sending on as a RABCK

Received with a box of books yesterday. Sounds very interesting.

Well, it was interesting at times, and slightly boring at times. I read it in bits and pieces, a chapter or two at a time. I realize now I knew nothing about bullfighting. I thought it was just a matador waving a cape at a bull and then sticking it with a sword. It's much much more than that, and I am now even more abhorrent of the whole "sport" than I was before.

Fulfilling a wish for ETMadrid!

Wow this is so kind of you. I am really thrilled. I hope that I can get to this soon as it should spur me on to return to the bullfighting photography book I started to read. A big thank you.

Years ago my Mum gave me some short stories by this author. I've still not read them but am reminded of them as she is often on the radio.

I finished reading this this morning. It's a curious book... actually well researched and written in a very readable style with a good touch of originality. What is never clear is why she's writing in the first place: she's been commissioned to do so, we're told, but by whom and why? We're never told. Who would commission someone who knows nothing about it to write a whole book on it? But then I guess it is the viewpoint of the non-connaisseur that was the interest in the first place. I imagine that during the bull fights she saw she was with an aficionado, or else she's become an expert whilst researching. I too have read Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway, but that doesn't mean I'd be able to tell a veronica from another pass. The book does manage to shed light on some aspects I didn't know about, and I found it engaging, if at times a little surprising (the personal anecdotes in particular) but not dislikable (except the very end). A bit unfortunate that she was not in a very good place and infiltrated the account with her back pain when she wrote it, but maybe that is what gives it its originality. It was good to gain more of an updated insight into who was who in the matador world at the time she was writing ('99). It does not begin to pass much of a judgement on the ethics surrounding the controversy that is bullfighting. I will probably post this to a friend who has put together the most impressive book about bulls and fighting, his own photographs taken over a number of years, and painstakingly edited to produce an anthropological view of the sport: Ramón Zabalza. Usually I don't give the names of the people I pass books onto, but in this case, as his book is available and might interest anyone who is reading this book, here is a link to see some of the images: http://bit.ly/1SEplMK Then if you want to consider getting the book, you can click on his 'Publications' tab: it is available in English translation as well as Spanish.

Soon perhaps I should contemplate a return to the bullring to see the real thing... My first experience was not the best: I was appalled to see not one but six bulls killed in quick succession. It didn't help that I was severely hungover after a very Spanish night out! Since then, I've been to just one extremely rural bullfight, which was steeped in all that is quintessential to such as event. Stark, beautiful, traditional and brutal.

Thank you so much Aramena for giving me the opportunity to read this. I will now take up my copy of Bos Taurus again as I want to read all the text as well as take another look at the stunning photography.

I have given this this evening to a friend who has returned recently from a short trip to Madrid and she went to a bullfight and has read Death in the Afternoon, so the perfect next reader for this.