This September 9 at 12 noon the XV Minotauro Award is held at the MNAC in Barcelona. During the ceremony, it will be revealed which of the 4 finalists wins the statuette: The eye of god (Science fiction), Memory of the blue girl (fantasy), Symbiosis (science fiction) and Growing fears (Terror).

The contest is one of the outstanding events of Ediciones Minotauro since 2004 and has become a cultural catalyst for Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror literature in Spanish. It should be noted that this edition coincides with the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of the historic seal to Grupo Planeta. For this reason, Jesús Badenes, General Director of the Planeta Library Division, will be in charge of opening the delivery gala. Follow her live on Twitter and Youtube of Minotauro and Planetadelibros.

We resume the activity with an interview with Santi Casas, one of the regular authors of the magazine Manga Planet, with stories as diverse as The witch or Pigüi. Do you want to know a little more about his career? Here are some brushstrokes …

How did you get into the world of illustration / comics?

I always knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to drawing, specifically to comics, illustration and video games. At that time, the training in Fine Arts did not contemplate direct contact with those professional sectors, only very slightly that of the more traditional editorial illustration, which is where I started. Later at Escola Joso I was able to come into direct contact with professionals who dedicated their lives to the world of comics and that showed me the way. Contact with the world of videogames came later when he had already been able to create a suitable portfolio and a certain trajectory in other fields.

Your first contact with Planeta Manga was …

Since the first decade of 2000 I have collaborated with Planeta on different projects, building a solid relationship with the editorial team. This probably meant that it was around from the beginning of the project, when the idea was still maturing. When I was asked to participate, it was clear to me that I wanted to develop the short story format, since it has always been one of my favorites. So I can only thank you for the trust you always place in me.

How did the plot of your magazine stories come about?

Since I got to know the manga, among the many peculiarities of its narrative, one of the things that most impressed me was the way in which its authors took popular legends and traditions (not only Japanese, but also Western) and turned them around a and again to continue presenting them with a brutal freshness and with a very contemporary vision to their readers. I always thought that in our traditions there were stories and characters that deserved that treatment and with enormous potential. From there is born Rondallas.

Pigüi and his world instead are a reinterpretation of an old project that we developed at Ikari Studio when we were working on projects for a younger reader. Children's comics are the foundation on which many reading hobbies are built and for us it was very important to do our bit.

What do you do first: character creation or script? How is your usual work circuit?

Sometimes neither one nor the other, sometimes it is more the feeling or impression that you want to make on the reader that takes you to the story and the character. Others it is the story or an anecdote that asks you for specific protagonists. And many others is the design of a character that tells you his story and asks you to get him into trouble and adventure. In the case of Rondallas the stories usually lead me to the characters, in the case of Pigüi it was the characters who arrived first and then "told" us their stories.

How do you rate the reception that the magazine has had and what would you highlight about it?

I think I have repeated it a thousand times and I never tire of doing it. After more than twenty years in the world of drawing, it is difficult for me to remember a project where I have received so much love from readers. That shows us that it was probably time to launch such an initiative and that it is undoubtedly a symptom of the maturity of our market and its readers.

Your favorite Planet Manga series is …

I look forward to each installment of Gryphoon. From the moment I met Luis's work, I thought it was destined to be a full stop in the national manga publication.

Then I run to read Good game, Kaoru and Blanca's work that always leaves me with a smile. Too Backhome that raises the level of each issue of the magazine to that of its Japanese counterparts.

But I also have to highlight the short stories, my favorite format and that has allowed me to enjoy Withered Lionel, Uroboros and so many others. And this only to this day, with a lot of new stories that have just started and that I think will win us over.

Next projects.

This year I hope to continue combining collaborations with Manga Planet with the work that I do on a regular basis for the American comics, role-playing games and video games market.

Social networks

Instagram: @ santi.ikari

The best books to achieve your purposes

There is something inescapable. Our calendars tell us that it is September and that means that everything is starting over. That the children go back to school, that the students go back to their universities, that many of us rejoin the routine and re-engage in the rhythm of normal life. Although this "normal" is a little different these days.

And we love that feeling that everything is still to be done, that we have infinite possibilities ahead of us and that we enjoy a new opportunity to continue growing and expanding horizons to reach a little higher in our level of happiness.
If you are like us —and we know that you are— you will not want to miss the books we bring you. Books to eat better, to learn to be happy, to live in a more sustainable way … Are you really going to miss them? 😜

1) 12 rules for living

Jordan peterson, "The most controversial and influential thinker of our time" according to eSpectator, proposes an exciting journey through the history of ideas and science – from ancient traditions to the latest scientific discoveries – to try to answer an essential question: what basic information do we need to live fully.

What are the essential rules for living that we should all know?

Rule # 1: Stand tall with your shoulders back… like lobsters; rule # 8: tell the truth, or at least don't lie; rule # 11: do not disturb children when they skateboard; Rule # 12: When you meet a cat on the street, pet it.

With humor, amenity and an informative spirit Booket brings us one of the most impressive authors of recent times and a work that will make you set new goals for this return to routine.

2) You are a wonderful mother

New book of «Lucia, my pediatrician»After the success of The best of our lives, from the hand of Booket.

Because Lucía Galán's practice is not only the territory where she cares for her little patients and faces all the medical challenges as a pediatrician – stories that have left an indelible mark on her heart and that she has decided to share in this book – but also it is also the space where you meet women and men who are learning, on the fly, to be parents.

A wonderful journey that is not always easy. As she herself has discovered in the first person. So in You are a wonderful mother She teaches us about motherhood without filters, naked, with honesty and self-criticism, which no one tells us but that we all feel. Let yourself be accompanied by the reference pediatrician.

3) Unleash your success

This book of Booket It is aimed at normal people with extraordinary dreams. You feel identified?

Unleash your success helps you audit your current life and design a new one that completes you in every way. With this objective, Victor Martin puts at your fingertips all the theories, tools, applications and practical exercises that will help you to achieve your goals.

And what kind of goals does it allow you to set yourself? The content of these pages is aimed at increasing your productivity, creating healthy habits and eliminating harmful ones, forging an adequate mentality, discovering new skills and enhancing your personal and professional development. In summary, that with this book you are more within reach than ever to squeeze your full potential to conquer that peak that you have been considering climbing for a long time. Are you ready?

4) Trading school

If there is one goal that we all often set ourselves, it is to learn to better manage our economy. To waste less. To invest better. And with this short-term investment guide that brings us closer Booket, we have all the necessary information to finally carry it out.

What should I know before investing? What type of investor am I? Do I invest in the stock market with trading, better gold or maybe real estate? What is the advantage of investing in the short term versus the long term? How do I control risk? How do I trade on-line?

Francisca Serrano gives us all the guidelines to invest in the short term without risk, from a trading plan to organizing an investment portfolio; crowfunding, crowlending, business angels and cryptocurrencies.

5) eat real food

At present, the majority of the population lives deceived regarding their diet. Using the movie metaphor MatrixWe live in a world where "we don't eat real food, but products that have been put before our eyes." An environment perfectly designed for the consumption of unhealthy edibles: the ultra-processed ones.

In this book, Carlos Rios offers us the scientific knowledge necessary to question, investigate and deepen our diet and everything that surrounds it so that you can become the owner of your own diet and introduce healthier habits in your day to day.

In addition, the author has just published a second part, Cook real food, where he teaches us to carry the realfooding up to the stove and enjoy a healthy and delicious diet. You sign up?

6) Now it's your turn to be happy

Discover the new book of Curro Cañete, the author who has helped more than 200,000 readers with The power to trust you.

You are strong. Make up your mind to be happy… And get it! In Now it's your turn to be happy you will find the guidance and drive you need to fulfill new dreams while making the most of every day, every hour, and to understand, finally, that the past is behind you; You learned from him and now is the time to trust yourself more, step forward and bet the most for what you love. And you, what are you going to propose? 🙌🏼

7) How to make good things happen to you

Uniting the scientific, psychological and human point of view, the Dr. Marian Rojas offers us a deep reflection, sprinkled with useful advice and with a didactic vocation so that we can achieve a full and happy existence.

How do you get something like that? It is necessary to know and optimize certain areas of the brain, set goals and objectives in life, exercise the will, activate emotional intelligence, develop assertiveness, avoid excessive self-criticism and self-demand, claim the role of optimism …

All the tips for a happier life are waiting for you in this book.

8) believe in yourself

We throw you some questions: why are there people who easily get what they want and others not? Are you sick of your life not changing?

Ruth Nieves affirms that as long as you do not become aware of who you are and do not take care to know yourself, you will be a puppet of your subconscious. And in ‘Believe in you’ he explains to us how his self-empowerment process was.

«When I was 35 years old, I gave up everything to go in search of myself, of what I was missing so much. I left my job as an architect, my apartment, my city, my country and the people I loved the most. And I went to the forests of the Black Forest in search of answers. There I began to connect with my essence and with what I really loved. And from there, all the answers came together. A year before I started writing this book, I understood why my life had come to this point. Why hadn't I managed to live my big dreams. I understood how the beliefs that absorbed my mind during the first seven years of life had directed and conditioned the rest of my life. "

In this book Rut Nieves shares all her learnings so that you too can discover what it is that makes you beat and go for it!

9) The secret of good digestion

We sit at the table, prick a piece of food with a fork, put it in our mouths, chew it, swallow it… And then what?

We eat at least three times a day throughout our lives, but we know almost nothing about what happens inside us when we eat a food. As a consequence, we often don't understand how our body reacts to what we have eaten. Why are there things that suit us and others that don't? What is the relationship between what we eat and the diseases we develop throughout life? What does the stomach tell us when it makes noise? Bad breath, migraines, bloating, allergies, obesity, and even depression can all be caused by poor digestion.

In this book full of curiosities Angela Quintas touches on every relevant aspect of our digestive process, because understanding the complexity of the intestine in a simple way will make us more aware when deciding what we are going to eat tomorrow to feel better.

10) alone

And with this book, reader, we throw you a very important challenge: discover the pleasure of being with yourself. Are you ready to know what he wants to tell you Silvia Congost?

Desired, sought after, provoked, unnoticed, loneliness can take many forms, but in most cases it is a situation that scares us, generates rejection and we try to avoid it at all costs. In today's world and especially after a certain age, it seems that loneliness is understood as a failure: being single, divorced or separated is something that must be overcome at all costs. However, knowing how to be alone is actually a sign of maturity, of autonomy, of personal wealth.

Congost, one of the best known psychologists in our country, breaks in this book with preconceived ideas about not having a partner and invites us to lose fear of the monster of loneliness from her own experience. To remain in silence listening to our body, connecting with the beating of our heart.

11) Life is waiting for you

And in this list could not miss Javier Iriondo. The author of the bestseller Where your dreams take you comes to move us with a novel about optimism and renewal.

Sofía is a middle-aged woman intensely dedicated to her professional life. After fainting in front of a large group of people when she was about to begin her speech at a public event, she must be admitted to hospital. The next day, they communicate terrible news to him. From that moment, Sofía begins a path of personal transformation and what at first is tragic news becomes a life lesson in which her whole world takes on a new meaning.

With the deep and emotional style to which Javier Iriondo has us accustomed, this novel full of sensitivity confronts us with ourselves, reveals fundamental affections of life and how our fears and expectations prevent us from enjoying the only thing we have: the present.

12) The biology of the present

And delving into this topic comes the book of Sergi Torres and David del Rosario so that we learn to activate the "presence mode" and experience the pleasure of living.

Because there are two ways to live. From the biology of survival, when we reject what happens to us and refuse to live certain experiences. Or from the biology of the present, when we welcome everything that life brings and we get closer to our true nature as human beings.

Can you imagine an existence far from suffering and fear, that welcomed with curiosity and openness all life situations that arose, even the most complicated? Sergi Torres and David del Rosario invite us to stop surviving and start living, showing us that honesty to observe our thoughts and our organism holds the keys to enjoying the pleasure of living free.

13) Life in four letters

Starting from an extraordinarily difficult time in the author's life, this book begins with a fascinating question: do we carry happiness written in our genes?

Carlos López-Otín, one of the most internationally relevant Spanish researchers, offers us a great popular science book to explain the secrets of the origin of life, the human genome and the tireless struggle of humanity to defeat disease and achieve happiness on earth .

With López-Otín we will discover that beyond the messages written in our genes there are other biological, dynamic and fascinating languages ​​that depend on our interaction with the environment and from which we are learning unsuspected lessons. Ready to surprise you?

14) The seven keys

And this book is one of the great reasons we were dying for September to come. Because it brings us a new book of Álex Rovira and Fernando Trías de Bes!

After the success of Good luck, the authors return with the keys to get rid of limiting beliefs and that we obtain the seven keys to live according to our essence: the key of belief, the key of judgment, the key of achievement, the key of enjoyment, the key of surrender, the key of identity and the key of being. On this journey of liberation he accompanies us at the beginning of each chapter "The enigma of the seven keys", an inspiring story in the style of Arabian Nights.

Because the secret is not to be free, but not to be a slave. A full life is only possible from vital freedom. In your bookstore from 09/15!

15) The great book of Lucia, my pediatrician

The most complete and updated guide on the health of your child from birth to adolescence. That is the book that we bring you from the hand of Lucia Galán.

The great book of Lucia, my pediatrician will accompany fathers and mothers on the journey of their lives. With a lot of information on the health and well-being of the baby up to his adolescence, this work will become a reference manual, informative and entertaining.

In this book you will find everything you need to understand the most common diseases and the answers to all those questions that assail parents every day. Is it normal for my baby to cry? What are the most frequent reasons for consultation? How do I answer a teenager's questions about sex?

These and many more questions are analyzed here, with the unmistakable kind and hopeful tone of one of the best pediatric prescribers in Spain. A must for any parent seeking guidance.

16) It's easy to quit if you know how

And if we talk about purposes for the new course, you could not miss purpose number 1 on any list: to leave smoking behind. Because it is one of the most difficult things to achieve. No matter how many times we have tried, relapse is so easy …

Now we bring you the system recognized worldwide as "the most effective to quit smoking", from Allen Carr. Whoever follows the EASYWAY method will not only stop smoking immediately, but will find it easy and even enjoy the process. Because the method in this book works for everyone, even the heavy smoker. And anyone who follows his instructions will remain a non-smoker and will be happy to be for the rest of his life.

Do you think that the time has come to finally quit smoking in the past?

And after all these recommendations, reader, we only have one message for you: if you want you can. And we are convinced of it. It does not matter that the circumstances are somewhat different than usual, that you have obstacles ahead or that the time you have is short. We believe that with willpower every goal is achievable. And with our books to achieve your purposes, maybe a little more affordable.

After all, the Nobel Prize for literature already said T. S. Eliot: "Only those who risk going far can find how far they can go."

And you, how far are you willing to go in the next few months? #IfYouWantCan 💪🏻📚

He said Machado that of "Walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking". And the same thing happens to us as readers. That every book read, every story lived, every place (real or imagined) that we have visited through reading … our love for books has become a little bit bigger.

Because books are our refuge, no matter under what circumstances.

Statistics say that during the days of confinement weekly readers have grown by 7% —in data from the Federation of Editors Guilds of Spain— or that 82% of the confined population affirms that reading has helped them cope better with this complicated period. And although the figures are positive, they only confirm something we already knew: reading evades us, reading makes us live other lives. So we are in love with books. Because they take us to other worlds when we don't want to be in ours, because they allow us to see things from a completely new point of view.

And because, although we are in a context dominated by the audiovisual, with series and films constantly calling our senses … we will always keep a special corner (in our hearts and in our schedule) for literature. 💙📖

So in this post we want to share with you, readers, 10 phrases of famous writers that inspire us and that we trust that they will also tickle your greedy minds. Enjoy them and read, read and read! Now and always.

1) Jorge Luis Borges

«Of the various instruments invented by man, the most amazing is the book; all the others are extensions of his body … Only the book is an extension of the imagination and memory». Do you agree with Jorge Luis Borges?

2) Emily Dickinson

«To travel far, there is no better ship than a book».

3) John Steinbeck

"By the thickness of the dust on the books of a public library, the culture of a people can be measured."

4) William Nicholson

«We read to know that we are not alone».

5) Cervantes

«He who reads a lot and walks a lot, sees a lot and knows a lot», Used to say the noble writer Don Miguel de Cervantes.

6) Victor Hugo

«Learning to read is lighting a fire, each syllable that is spelled is a spark», Commented the author of The Miserables or Our Lady of Paris, the essential Victor Hugo.

7) Ray Bradbury

«You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. You just have to stop people from reading them».

No one would dare to rebut Ray Bradbury, especially after reading your Fahrenheit 451. 🙊🔥

8) Franz Kafka

«A book must be the ax that breaks the frozen sea within us».

9) Mario Vargas Llosa

«Learning to read is the most important thing that has happened to me. Almost 70 years later I clearly remember that magic of translating words into images». This affirmed a whole Nobel Prize for Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa.

10) Gustave Flaubert

«Do not read, as children do, for fun, or as the ambitious do, for the purpose of instruction. No, read to live».

Gustave Flaubert, one of the feathers with the greatest literary strength in the 19th century, was of this opinion about what a reader should look for in a work.

And with the author of Madame Bovary we come to the end of this post, dear readers. We hope that these phrases stimulate you and make you want to devour a new book, or to discover a new author, to take a notebook and pen for yourself and try the craft of writing in first person … And if you lack a little more inspiration, do not hesitate to consult this list of essentials to spend a luxurious (literary) summer.

# ReadYourSummer 📚🍦

Before we embark on a vacation worthy of a dystopian novel, it's time to announce the Minotaur novelties for September. A trio of classic aces will reign in the Essential Collections and Author Libraries. Ursula K. Leguin will return with a reissue of The left hand of the darkness and the promise of more recoveries in subsequent months. Ray Bradbury will continue celebrating its year with a luxury edition 100th anniversary of Fahrenheit 451 and a new publication of Zen in the art of writing. The imaginary of Philip K. Dick will be represented by The clans of the moon Alfana.

The replacement of these Greats of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Terror literature is ensured thanks to the pen of another international triplet of writers. C. A. Fletcher will sign A boy and his dog at the end of the world, a post-apocalyptic novel with a hopeful twist, surprising twists, and an unconditional love for pets. Sofia Rhei will present Newropia, a tale of political fiction and adventure, a dystopia mixing soft science fiction from the near future and sociological. David Ouimet It will be the third authorial bet with Silent. It is an illustrated book full of great beauty, with a tender and light-filled message that has caught personalities of the stature of Neil Gaiman or Philip Pullman.

Finally, lovers of epic and video games will be able to enjoy more plots of The Wheel of Time, Warhammer and Assassin’s Creed.

Happy summer full of good readings! Take care!