Translate seems to produce movements in serotonin: it is a never stop fixing the work, in compulsive confrontations with perfection. Without reaching the pathology, it is a great symptom of vocation and the promising future that the trade can have. Immersing yourself in five hundred pages of another language is a vice for few. Much less are those that transfer them to our language. Although otherwise there would be four cats connoisseurs of Tólstoi, Murakami or Baudelaire. In short, goodbye in many ways to the work of universal literature.

In our recognition work, we propose 5 books for translators and translators. A resting cushion in knowledge. Because to face a text alone or alone is to climb Everest and lower it to the limp leg. Below our selection:

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First, A fish in the fig tree. A book of David Bellos which reviews, in an entertaining and pedagogical way, the history of translation. Because societies have not always been able to understand the words of their neighbors, and communication, we know, is a key element. How we managed to get out of this and other questions David talks to us. The interaction between languages ​​is, after all, our own interaction.

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Second we meet Javier Calvo, and his The ghost in the book. This renowned translator from our country tells us about the trade, its presence and its invisibility. An essay to give voice to the echo that represents the translation of any work. Whether literary, cinematographic or any other type. Globalization has made this profession present in our daily lives. Although there is a deep backroom.

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For more technical issues, we recommend the Spanish language style book. A work that presents an overview of the grammar, spelling and lexical evolution of Spanish. A way of approaching the norms of the living language, which is formed by the speakers and is consolidated – decidingly – in the institutions. A book that will soon arrive at our bookstores, which pays special attention to the regulations of the digital format.

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In the same line, we recommend the New dictionary of doubts and difficulties of the Spanish language, from Manuel Seco. A reference work that accumulates eleven editions. In its pages you will find a way to solve those little doubts that arise when we start writing, because not everything knows the internet. A clear invitation to the reflection of language.

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Finally, the Sorry impossible from José Antonio Millán González. A work that investigates one of the most interesting aspects of writing: punctuation. Because a comma completely changes the meaning of a sentence, we already know that. Millán González proposes a pleasant guide to find the score of each and one, in our own way, but based on regulations that have existed for many years.