Sometimes, looking at the many books I have at home, I feel I shall die before I come to the end of them, yet I cannot resist the temptation of buying new books. Whenever I walk into a bookstore and find a book on one of my hobbies — for example, Old English or Old Norse poetry — I say to myself, “What a pity I can’t buy that book, for I already have a copy at home.

Borges was overjoyed and joined demonstrators marching through the streets of Buenos Aires. The Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816 led to waves of immigration from Europe Asia and the Middle East and in the following decades and the Argentine national identity diversified. For a time Argentinians hesitated to wear band aids for fear friends would ask 'Did the atomic bomb go off in your hand?' A shame because Argentina really has world class scientists.

Borges himself was fluent in several languages. On his return to Argentina in 1921 Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. His work embraces the "character of unreality in all literature".