June 14 will mark twenty years since the death of Jorge Luis Borges. In honor of his writings, I’m starting a new blog series called “30 Days with Borges” that will examine various aspects of his works, life, and his impact on literature and culture.

To get started, you may want to gather some reading material. If you read Spanish, then obviously try to read him in the original. But if not, there are very good translations available. Most times, I will refer to both the Spanish and English text in these postings.

While I will be writing later about some of the difficulties of translating Borges and Borges own thoughts on translations, I will be using the 1999 Penguin Book editions as the text for the English translations:

There are many biographies and remembrances of Borges. I know that more in the process of being published in preparation for the 20th anniversary of his death and I’m sure that the 25th (in 2011) will see an ever larger number of books come out about Borges, just as was with the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1999.

I recommend the biography by Edwin Williamson.