John Sturrock (1930–2017)

In the essay "Notes on What I'm Looking For," Georges Perec proposes that his writings orbit around four preoccupations or targets for inquiry: the quotidian, introspection, games, and fictions. These are certainly illustrated in the slim book of essays Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books, named after the second-longest selection in the volume.

Perec is known for his association with OuLiPo, a group of writers using ludic constraints to produce texts, and an example of that engagement is in the book's final and longest piece, "Think/Classify," which has subheadings lettered in conspicuously non-alphabetic sequence. It's not until the penultimate section W (directly following K) that he discloses the series to be the order of the appearance of the alphabet in a chapter of Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller ... .

This book reads quickly and offers a lot of variety while keeping to its central themes. The essays are structured unconventionally, and even when they address rather routine topics (e.g. a "bucket list" in "Some of the Things I Really Must Do Before I Die") they have surprising and entertaining details (e.g. "Get drunk with Malcolm Lowry").… (mer)

A window into the inquisitive, playful and, at times, obsessive mind of Georges Perec, the French master of OuLiPo. this is a short collection of essays that appeared in newspapers and magazines. I especially enjoyed, "Some of the Things I Really Must Do Before I Die", and "Think/Classify".

Besides wishing to "arrange my books once and for all" he would also "like to get drunk with Malcolm Lowry" before his time ends. He explores the arbitrary structure of the alphabet, organizing one's library, and the general dearth of verbs to describe discreet actions in various languages:

"The Americans also have a verb that means 'to live in the suburbs and work in the town': to commute. But they don't, any more than we do, have one which would mean: 'drink a glass of white wine with a friend from Burgundy, at the Cafe des Deux-Magots, around six o'clock on a rainy day, while talking about the non-meaningfulness of the world, knowing that you have just met your old chemistry teacher and that next to you a young woman is saying to her neighbour: 'You know, I showed her some in every colour!'

An amusing, easy introduction to a unique writer.

Part of the interesting collection: Penguin Books-Great Ideas… (mer)