The Book of Questions: Revised and Updated

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Neruda became known as a poet when he was 10 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems, such as the ones in his collection: Twenty Love Poems, and a Song of Despair (1924). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Some few of the questions I did find interesting and thought provoking. The majority however I found...well, pointless even silly. I see many don't agree with me but I looked at questions that made strange assumptions or gave an incomplete premise, or an absurd premise and mostly shook my head. This is supposed to be a book of questions that will tell us about ourselves if we approach them...introspectively and thoughtfully. I can see groups of people sitting around looking at this book maybe at a party and discussing eachother's answers. Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical" occupation. Neruda's pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan Neruda; Pablo is thought to be from Paul Verlaine. With his works translated into many languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. Who was your favorite character? What character did you identify with the most? Were there any characters that you disliked? Why? Kept this on the dinner table to throw out and discuss with the fam a few times, but the questions are kind of lame and we soon lost interest. Let it sit for a month or so and thought maybe I'd post a few questions from it here in this review and let folks answer in the comments... Then I skimmed and read some more and thought better of it.My kneejerk reaction is to lose the use of one of my hands. However, if I can’t drive, I could bicycle to a lot of places. The question needs to be more clear though. Would this scenario eliminate ALL motorized vehicles or would I only be unable to operate one? Other questions are disturbing and encroach on our basic liberties as consumers. Take Question 002 to illustrate this point. The gist of that one is that your 6-year-old daughter’s favorite toy starts telling her that she needs to buy a new toy from the same company’s line. This complete translation of Pablo Neruda's El libro de las preguntas ( The Book of Questions) features Neruda's original Spanish-language poems alongside William O'Daly's English translations. In his introduction O'Daly, who has translated eight volumes of Pablo Neruda's poetry, writes, "These poems, more so than any of Neruda's other work, remind us that living in a state of visionary surrender to the elemental questions, free of the quiet desperation of clinging too tightly to answers, may be our greatest act of faith." If you can’t find a guide for the book your club is reading, we’ve put together this helpful list of book club questions. These general book club questions are some of our favorites, and work well for almost any book, whether you’re reading fiction or non-fiction.

Grow Your Club: Looking to connect with readers outside your personal circle? Open your club to the public and find new members in your hometown or across the globe. The Book of Questions… contains 316 questions asked with the poet’s childlike sense of wonder—questions that demand no rational answers, only sincere thought. O’Daly’s work is a must for anyone interested in Neruda’s poetry.” —Elliot Bay Booknotes Surrealism/magical realism? Unanswerable, paradoxical, the logic of a child’s ever-expanding universe of curiosity, which continues in those who remain artists and writers and scientists and children forever.

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Some top questions . .. (1) If you could get honest answers to any questions you asked, what would be your top three and why?; (2) If you caught your father holding hands with another woman and he asked you not to tell your mother, what would you do? What if your mother confided it was eating her alive b/c she felt your father was cheating on her?; (3) would you like to know the precise date of your death?; and (4) If 100 people were chosen at random, how many more do you feel would be leading a more satisfying life than you? Is there room for a few thorns? they asked the rosebush. What news bursts forth from the leaves of those first days of spring? Compare this book to other books you have read by the same author, or other books you have read covering the same or similar themes. How are they the same or different? Rate this book on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Why did you give the book the rating you did? Did any part of this book club discussion change your rating from what it would have been directly after finishing the book? If you found a book of more than 217 hypothetical questions and their follow-ups and could use it as an excuse to achieve a deeper understanding of yourself or someone else, would you?