5/5 stars
Had read most of these in isolation before, never cover to cover as a coherent collection. They work better as a collection – themes emerging, parallels, repetitions.
No real standout story for me, bar possibly The House of Asterion and The Writing of the God, though many standout ideas. The core concepts of The Zahir (an object or thing that drives obsession it’s impossible to shake) and The Aleph (a point in time and space from which it’s possible to see all other points in time and space simultaneously) both could have been expanded into much more.
And that’s the thing with Borges – he always leaves you wanting more. May well try this same trick of reading his collections as collections with the rest now…