Hey everyone, Dan is back with his weekly Thursday post. This post contains affiliate links, which means YBC® earns a small commission if you make a purchase through those links. Thanks for the support and hope you enjoy the post! Also, don’t forget to enter to win our Valentine’s Giveaway! xo Candace
Candace got me a bunch of books for Christmas and I have finally found some time to read them. I love literal books as gifts - I need the actual book- I cannot read on a tablet. I need to hold the pages and be able to see my progress as I turn each page. I like having a large collection of books on a shelf and I like to be able to look back at them. Even when traveling, I will stuff my luggage full of books. I enjoy being in books stores and just being around books anytime I can. They say that you can’t judge a book by the cover, I disagree. I love a good cover and will certainly be drawn to books that catch my eye visually.
The book I am reading now is called “Magnetized; Conversations with a Serial Killer” by Carlos Busqued. It is fairly quick at 192 pages. I read it in two days with an average read time of about 3 hours each day. This book is written as a conversation between the author and a man named Ricardo Melogno. Ricardo is the serial killer and we learn all about his childhood, his crimes, his time in prison, and his overall thoughts on life. I don’t know why, but serial killers are fascinating. Most people are drawn to them in a peculiar way. We want to know why they did what they did. They are studied by all types of scientists, psychiatrists, and therapists. We study their brains and try to figure out just what is going on. Ricardo gives us straight forward answers to all these questions.
Without spoiling too much, we learn that Ricardo kills 4 taxi drivers in about a week in Buenos Aires. Each time he takes a drive with them and ends up putting a bullet in each one at the end of the trip. He is finally caught when his brother turns him in. Knowing this does not take anything away for the book as it is explained early. The book excels whenever Ricardo is explaining his life. We find early on that his childhood was unique. His mother was very much into spirituality and this seems to have had the biggest impact on Ricardo. We learn about Ricardos way of thinking. He seemed to be living in another reality while wandering aimlessly around ‘our’ world. Ricardo discusses life in prison, in which he was drugged beyond comprehension. He has served his sentence but has been deemed unfit to return to society so he is stuck in some sort of legal limbo.
He has no remorse, no understanding of why he did what he did, and is completely aware of his actions. His lack of emotion is startling and he really just feels nothing. He does not come off as a demon or a person full of hate, but he simply just is. You are easily drawn to him and his approach to life. This is where your inner dialogue will fight itself. He is a killer, yet he his likable in a strange way.
I would recommend this to anyone fascinated with crime, serial killers, psychology, or just looking for a quick read. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you thought of it and I am always looking for book recommendations, if you want to share.