The Widow Ching Pirate by Jorge Luis Borges

How intellectual. I chose to read this collection of five essays by celebrated Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges after staying in Palermo, Buenos Aires where I walked up and down Calle Jorge Luis Borges, where appropriately enough there is a bookshop. It started excellently, with the interesting tale of the woman who was the most successful pirate of all time and an interesting biography of New York gangster Monk Easton. His explanation of samurai suicide was a little confusing to me, and the final two essays really went over my head – the first being a fascinating but somewhat baffling story of an extraterrestrial civilisation and the final was Borges seeking to score points about the authorship of Don Quixote, a book I admit not to have read. I enjoyed what I enjoyed, but I’m clearly a philistine.