http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/2009/04/10#borges Argentine writer of sheer, unalloyed genius. <P>Influenced by: Valery; <a href="russell.html">Bertrand Russell</a> (particularly <cite>Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy</cite> and <cite>Analysis of Mind</cite>). <cite><a href="1001-nights.html">The Thousand and One Nights</a>.</cite> <P>Influence on: <a href="italo-calvino.html">Italo Calvino</a>; <a href="umberto-eco.html">Umberto Eco</a>; too many others to list. <a href="simon.html">Herbert Simon</a> recounts a very amusing story, in his memoirs, about meeting Borges and discussing labyrinths... <ul>Recommended (well, really, <em>everything,</em> but, if one must be selective...): <li>The translations in the new editions of his English works (<cite>Collected Fictions</cite> and <cite>Selected Non-Fiction</citE>) are supposed to be much more reliable than those in previous editions. Not reading Spanish, I couldn't say. I do remain fond of the old ones, as in <cite>Ficciones</cite> and <cite>Labyrinths</cite> <li>"The Library of Babel" [<a href="http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html">on-line</a>] <li>"Funes, the Memorious" <li>"The Garden of Forking Paths" <li>"Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" </ul> <ul>To read: <li><cite>The Book of Imaginary Beings</cite> <li><cite>Collected Poems</cite> </ul>