An Exquisitely Rare Reading Experience... (article, adverb, adjective, adjective, noun = probable disapproval from characters of the book)

This is one of those unmatched reading experiences that don't come along real often.  First of all, the author was given to me in recommendation from a person whom I'd carry an unpublished manuscript around for, even if it had been rejected a hundred times, simply because it came from her.  Secondly, I shared it with a person whom I'd grown close to, shared some of my main interests with, and we enjoyed a conversation over it.  What was even better in that instance was that it had been on her reading shelf as well for a special reason (a soul she loved had loved it), and she just hadn't gotten to it yet.  Oh joy, a colloquium of beloved souls occurred over a beloved book, and I was blessedly a part of it!

Except that was the first book by the author Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  That happened a few months ago.  I gobbled up every word in that book and cursed myself for consuming it so ravenously when I got to the end.  The name of that book was The Shadow of the Wind.  Today I finished his second book, The Angel's Game. 

The colluquy that takes place among the characters in Zafon's books are of the kind I'd dream of calling into my life.  I'm talking about characters who love books, literature, and writing in a way that makes me salivate to meet them in real life.  They weave literary references into witty conversation and I'm envious I'm not in the same room.  The sarcasm and intellectual banter occurring between the characters is so precise, I imagine they can hear my laughter (and the rest of the reading audience) right after their epochal tête-à-tête.

Not only that, the author has created them in a landscape which mirrors their literature loving souls.  There is the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, and I probably shouldn't even talk about it. 

However, I am going to share a secret from this book.  It's sacred knowledge.  It shouldn't be handled lightly.  In fact, I'm a little worried that I'm sharing it.  I'm going to be bold and do it though, because I think sacred knowledge like this...should be shared: "Every book, every volume you see, has a soul.  The soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.  Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens (Angel's Game, 519)."

If you are anything like the kind of person that I am, you might be tempted to think that after being inducted into such a world, after coming to the ecstatic realization that such a place exists, that it is some kind of paradise.  Membership in such a society?  Being part of such an erudition would surely bring one to the end of all searches.  Utopia is here.  Ha!

The beloved characters of this book do not have it easy.  The theatric scale of sorrow, loss, upheaval, betrayal, etc., etc., etc., is played out in gargantuan proportion.  No soul is spared.  There is much weeping to be done. 

Upon the completion of this book today, a quote I recently came across, through another booklover, played itself over and over in my head.  Maybe it is the lesson of this book, of all books, and that main one that readers are able to remember about life upon completion of them:  "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.  Never yield to force.  Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." - Winston Churchill

I was so honored to see this occur within the lives of those incredible characters, despite so much plight.  I'm so glad that my soul could touch the soul of this book.  And yeah, I loved even most, the coming together of souls over an exquisite read.