 Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12 . During adolescence and throughout his life , he was passionate about poetry , especially that of Pablo Neruda , John Keats , Antonio Machado , Federico García Lorca , Gabriela Mistral , César Vallejo , and Walt Whitman . He could also recite Rudyard Kipling 's " If — " and José Hernández 's Martín Fierro from memory . The Guevara home contained more than 3 @,@ 000 books , which allowed Guevara to be an enthusiastic and eclectic reader , with interests including Karl Marx , William Faulkner , André Gide , Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne . Additionally , he enjoyed the works of Jawaharlal Nehru , Franz Kafka , Albert Camus , Vladimir Lenin , and Jean @-@ Paul Sartre ; as well as Anatole France , Friedrich Engels , H. G. Wells , and Robert Frost . 
