Jorge Luis Borges's Reading List
The 6 books that shaped Jorge Luis Borges — writer & librarian.
Argentine master of the short story who created labyrinths of thought — stories about infinity, mirrors, time, and identity.
Influential Books
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges(1944)
Borges' greatest collection — labyrinths, infinite libraries, and stories that contain the universe in a few pages.
One Thousand and One Nights
Anonymous(800)
The Arabian Nights' infinite nested stories became Borges' model for fiction as a hall of mirrors.
The Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri(1320)
Borges taught Dante for decades and considered the Comedy the greatest single work in Western literature.
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes(1605)
Borges' story "Pierre Menard" reimagines Quixote. Cervantes' novel was the origin of Borges' obsession with authorship.
The Book of Sand
Jorge Luis Borges(1975)
A book with infinite pages, no beginning and no end — Borges' ultimate metaphor for the incomprehensible.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume(1748)
Hume's philosophical skepticism — especially about identity and causation — runs through Borges' fiction.