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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 MAY 2022 10 ALMANAC My essentials IRENE CHIAS 48, Writer After working as a journalist for several years in France and Milan, Irene Chias settled in Malta in 2019, where she writes as a freelancer for Italian magazines and newspapers, and runs the blog Molto Malta on TgCom24. She published four novels in Italy, including Esercizi di sevizia e seduzione (Mondadori, 2013), now translated to Maltese as Mur Gibek... (Horizons, 2022), and her latest Fiore d'agave, fiore di scimmia (Laurana, 2020), which is also being translated. 1 2 4 5 1. Book 3 2. Film 3. Internet/TV 4. Music 5. Place 2001: A Space Odyssey. From Arthur Clarke's book, Kubrick made a film that never dates, but which many scientific breakthroughs re- lated to the mind and space/ time seem to confirm. La zo- na, a Mexican film on now- adays reality of social classes in a hyper capitalist society, where the strong (read rich) have the law in their side and the weak (read poor) can be simply sacrificed. MY beloved Rai3 Blob, since the late Eighties, the perfect synthesis of the craziness going on in Italy and in the world, and a reflection on the indigestibility of tele- vision. I used to be a series binge-watcher, not any more. However in the last few years I loved many of those. But if I had to choose one, I would say Black Mirror, no doubts. HOW can one answer a ques- tion like that? Can I say three? Talking Heads, Marvin Gaye, Bach. It depends on the mood and on the moment of life. Then, for anagraphic and personal reasons, I can't avoid to mention R.E.M., for they have been the soundtrack of long part of my existence. I love Brazil, Kerala, Califor- nia. But having to choose, I would go closer and say the Torre di Ligny in Trapani, from where you can take in the view of the Egadi Islands and the mountain of Erice. I have travelled quite a lot in my life, but now I have decid- ed that – if a war or a pandem- ic doesn't force me to change my plans – I'd like to limit long-distance flights to a cou- ple of countries that I'd like to visit, and instead keep it in the Mediterranean or in the close Atlantic. I like the idea of be- ing more sustainable and less dependent on airplanes. OLIVER Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, not because it's the best I've ever read, but because it was the first that truly changed my approach to reality, to the concept of health and illness, to one's own personality. Then there is a book that I've read many years ago and that from time to time I partially reread: Memoirs of Hadrian by Mar- guerite Yourcenar. You can al- ways discover a new perspec- tive on life, death, power.