They moved to the Todos los Santos bridge 32 years ago. Before, Helena Rakosnik and Artur Mas lived next door, so, pregnant with their third child, after work she took advantage of the fact that her children were at school to load the lighter objects into a shopping cart. If the move started on a Thursday, on Sunday they already had guests to eat. The books took up all the rooms in the apartment, including the kitchen. But he has made many transfers of books. The last one, leaving the Palau de la Generalitat, in January 2016. He has more in the former president’s office than at home.
In 2004 they removed the partitions and made a living room that served as a multi-space for the whole family. They wanted a big library. Twelve meters long, it is made of iroko wood. In the closed compartments there are tableware and vases. And in the lower drawers, perfectly organized – both are –, electronic utensils are classified in one, travel guides, maps and sentimental folders of reservations and tickets in another; another is dedicated to your children’s school documents; another to cameras “that are no longer useful for anything”; another to board games such as Trivial, Parcheesi or chess. “And here all the Christmas decorations begin, I have boxes and boxes of mangers and so on,” says Rakosnik, who is passionate about Christmas.
It is also about painting: there are books by Chagall, Ramon Casas, Cézanne, Dalí, among family photos, small paintings and figures. In the hallway, a collection of biographies, the Salvat Basic Library and several bibles. “Someone wrote that if you have not read the Bible, Capital, by Karl Marx, and The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith, you are missing three great works of universal literature,” says Mas. He is not much of a novel reader. He is interested in chronicles of the Second World War, history books, geography, essays. He has a special fondness for the six-volume Lagarde et Michard that covers French literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. He can recite poems by Victor Hugo, Baudelaire, Lamartine. At the French Lyceum he was marked by extraordinary teachers, among whom Sarsanedas.
There is a part dedicated to Barcelona, ??another to Catalan art, another to poetry. There are Shakespeare, Leopardi, Espriu, Foix, Papasseit, the Complete Works of Joan Maragall, Sala Parés edition of 1932, a gift from Juan Antonio Comín, who was director of the fashion salons. There are Les quatre grans chroniques. And Josep Pla. And in one section, what Mas reads now: Josep Fontana, Gaziel, Antoni Gelonch; sometimes he returns to L’enigma rus, by Xavier Roig. This year they traveled to Australia, and gave him Lazarus Rising, from his former Prime Minister, John Howard. He is always accompanied by Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. And Churchill.
Although everyone has their own readings, when she enjoys a well-written book, she always tells him about it. So they took turns reading Josep Maria Quintana, from Alaior, who writes about the history of Menorca, where they spend the summer. Rakosnik told Carme Riera that Te deix, amor, la mar com a penyora changed his life as a teenager. In the press, he likes corners more than big news, like when Perma-nyer writes about a street, for example. And except for the press, they always read on paper. Him, even the dictionaries, which he consults in the car (if he doesn’t drive, of course) or on the office table, where there are now The Invisible City, by Emili Rosales, and a novel by Sandra Barneda. Next to it, a piano. And on the shelf, among others, the Great Catalan Encyclopèdia, Història de Catalunya by Oriol Vergés and Pilarín Bayés, with dedication. “You see, Catalonia is present everywhere,” says Rakosnik.
She is a bit of a night owl and her favorite place to read is her bed. But he arrives so tired that he falls asleep. They read a lot on airplanes and they agree that TV takes up hours. Reading takes Rakosnik to different worlds and brings him serenity; especially near the sea. When in summer he is on a boat, reading and bathing, she is the happiest woman in the world.
It brings knowledge and feeling to Mas. She has always had a thirst for learning, for everything and everyone (“although from some you can’t learn practically anything,” she adds). And he teaches him nothing as much as books; They strike a chord with him, just like a movie or a play: “I have cried more reading – poetry or The Little Prince – than with politics.”
