BUENOS AIRES – Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon championed the novel as a supreme art form, and explained why he won’t have his books made into movies or TV series during an interview with EFE in Buenos Aires.

Barcelona’s Ruiz Zafon, who on Saturday will present his latest novel, “El Laberinto de los Espiritus” (Labyrinth of the Spirits) at the 43rd International Book Fair in the Argentine capital, said he has been on a mission since the beginning of his career to remind people what a pleasure reading is, something he believes is quickly being forgotten.

With his latest book, the author completes a “quartet” of novels that make up “El Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados” (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) that started being published in 2001.

“If they had forced us all to watch movies and TV series when we were 10 years old, we’d say: I want to do anything but this,” he said.

For that reason, Ruiz Zafon’s “personal mission” is to help readers “recover the pleasure of reading,” and convince those “who were forced to read at school” that they can learn to enjoy it.

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