I suppose one of the quickest way to get an idea about someone is to look at their bookcase, or even better, to talk to them about books which have inspired them and guided them through life. Quite a few writers have been tempted to write about their life in books - I'm thinking about Francis Spufford (The Child that Books Built), John Sutherland (The Boy Who Loved Books) and Alberto Manguel (A Reading Diary) to name a few among many. I greatly enjoyed reading these and in any case, I collect "books about books", and when I saw Rick Gekoski's new books, Outside of a Dog, it had to be mine.
Rick is not the first person to write his life story in the context of the books he's read, but this one is as good as any and was a read both amusing and informative. I'll quote from the publisher's website to list some of the books covered:
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg;
Magnus Hirschfeld Sexual Anomalies and Perversions;
Allen Ginsberg, Howl;
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye;
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land;
Descartes, Meditations;
David Hume, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding;
W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems;
F.R. Leavis, The Common Pursuit;
Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy;
Tom Wolfe,The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test;
Ludwig Wittgenstein,Philosophical Investigations;
R.D. Laing, The Divided Self;
Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch;
D.H. Lawrence,Women in Love;
A.S. Neill, Summerhill;
Roald Dahl, Matilda;
Alice Miller, Pictures of a Childhood;
A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic;
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams;
Carl Hiaasen, Double Whammy;
Peter Wright,Spycatcher; and
Rick Gekoski, Staying Up.
And there was a good enough mix of the familiar and the new to keep my interest throughout. Rick is basically an academic (ex-lecturer in English at Warwick University) turned rare book dealer, and has many contacts in the world of literature. And oh yes, he's been a judge on the Man Booker Prize. So, as far as literature is concerned I guess he's qualified to write about books, which he does eruditely, knowledgeably and perhaps above all, humorously.
Continue reading "Review: Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoire - Rick Gekoski" »
I’ve always enjoyed reading books about reading and have a few on my shelves (not least the excellent, “A History of Reading” by Alberton Manguel). Margaret heard John Sutherland talking about this book on the radio, and when she told me about it, I decided to see what it was like, and was pleasantly surprised how good it is. While feeling I already know “how to read a novel”, when I read about John Sutherland (Booker Prize judge, Guardian columnist, academic etc), I guessed he would something to say to a compulsive reader like myself.

