When he had to choose between science or literature, he hesitated. In the end he opted for the former, because it seemed to him that studying mathematics on his own would be complicated. But he also enrolled in philosophy, and studied both degrees in parallel. Carme Torras remembers how it impacted her Thus spake Zarathustra When starting university, there is no page that is not underlined. She came from a school of nuns, and that explosion of Nietzschean ideas left her touched. Since then, she has sought for her books to provide her with new knowledge and be reflective, to raise dilemmas and deep questions. She is interested in those that deal with assistive robotics and artificial intelligence, a specialty on which she researches. She is passionate about what she has to do with human relationships mediated by robots, such as Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro.
She lives with Josep, they work at the university, and when they designed the home they would move into in 1994, they were clear that they would need shelves. There are seven. In the studio, some are inherited – the classic secretary desks too, one facing Collserola –, and others, with glass doors and dehumidifying bags, were custom-made by a cabinetmaker recommended by a friend. At the top, several trophies; tennis, table tennis, basketball (Torras plays on a team of veterans), poetry, the Ictineu, the National Research Award 2020, the National Research Award 2021, the DonaTIC.
Its half of the shelf is distributed into three sections in alphabetical order of author, curiously from right to left. First, science fiction. Even as a child, she spent her summers reading the Verne books that her father had. She read non-stop. She is the oldest of five siblings, and her youngest, Isabel, modeled a clay figure of her with a book in her hands and a sweater that an aunt made for her. Immediately she was marked A happy world by Huxley 1984 by Orwell Fahrenheit 451 “Bradbury writes very well”, The end of the eternity , by Asimov. Classics that anticipated the now as now the series Black Mirror (which excites you) anticipates the future. She has the purple and gray collection of Pagès Editors, the oldest of the genre in the Catalan language. She loves Ted Chiang and the psychological and philosophical aspects of science.
The prying gaze
Place
Seven shelves distributed throughout the house
Order
Author alphabetical, from right to left
Passions
Science fiction, Catalan narrative, Latin American literature
They have changed his life
‘No se sap mai’, ‘Un home de paraula’, by Imma Monsó; ‘Te deix, amor, la mar com a penyora’, by Carme Riera; ‘Mentira’, by Enrique de Hériz; ‘El déu de les petites coses’, by Arundhati Roy
some own
‘La mutació sentimental’ (Milenio/Pagès), ‘Estimades màquines’ (Males Herbes), ‘Barcelona 2059’ (Mai Més)
The last
‘Machines like me’, Ian McEwan, ‘Klara and the Sun’, Kazuo Ishiguro (Anagrama)
At 17 years old, he really liked it Hopscotch (in the section of Latin American literature, along with Onetti, Benedetti and Sabato, there is all of Cortázar). But recently he reread some lines and it is no longer the same. “Sometimes it’s better not to come back,” he says. Because she goes back through the phrases that she underlined in pencil and the comments that she wrote down along with a repertoire of symbols in each book. when you browse Lie , by Enrique de Hériz, relives what he experienced the first time. Write down all the books he has read in a notebook. Top the list A spring by Domenico Guarini , by Carme Riera, year 1981. At that time I was studying Computer Science in Massachusetts. Next to each title ( Stone of Tartera by Barbal, The hours by Woolf The last trobada by Marái), adds a star rating.
Associate books with places. When he accompanied his daughter, Laura, to basketball games, they arrived an hour and a half early, which she spent reading in the car or in a park. Passing by now, she remembers what she read then; the Sarrià neighborhood, for example, transports it to Traffickers of llegendes , by Jordi Font-Agustí. Catalan fiction is another of her passions: Imma Monsó, Riera – Torras probably began writing because of her – and many books by Pedrolo. And from Marcos Ordóñez, and The god of small things , which is among his favorites. And a battery that accumulates on the nightstand. Buy more than you read. He saves them for later.
In the living room, next to the television, are those who sign. He loves to participate in collective books like Barcelona 2059: city of posthumans ; They wrote it among nine during the pandemic, they met by video conference. She is also the author of The sentimental mutation , Enxarxats, Dear machines , among others. He reformulated the choice between sciences or letters, and transformed it from a dilemma to a conjunction.
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