Thank You, Mr. H

I’ve been read­ing Gior­nale Nuovo for a while now. It’s a good weblog, mostly con­cerned with art, illus­tra­tion and rare books. Recently, Mr. H, the man behind the Gior­nale, announced a Free Book Give­away, so I sent off a quick email request­ing Why I Have Not Writ­ten Any of My Books, an auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal tract on the difi­culty of writ­ing by a promi­nent Ouli­pan. Those who know my read­ing habits will realise that this book might just as well be called Why I Have Not Writ­ten Any of My Books With Jack Mot­tram In Mind.

In any case, the book arrived while I was away carous­ing on the Wirral, and this act of gen­eros­ity has spurred me to follow Mr. H’s lead and give away a few books myself. Please choose one of the fol­low­ing three titles, and send me an email with your postal address. I will then post you the book of your choice or, if some­one has beaten you to the punch, let you know which are still available.

Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano by Christo­pher Miller. This is the life of the tit­u­lar com­poser, an eccen­tric, told in the form of liner notes by his equally eccen­tric biog­ra­pher. Part satire on con­tem­po­rary clas­si­cal music, part homage to Nabokov’s Pale Fire, all good. [This one’s gone]

The Mina­tour Takes a Cig­a­rette Break by Steven Sher­ril. This is the story of M, as the mytho­log­i­cal half-​man half-​bull now calls him­self, making the best of life as a line cook in modern-​day Amer­ica. Sher­ril is good on detail, whether he’s record­ing the plea­sure to be found in mun­dane tasks, or having the Mino­taur muse on the prob­lems immor­tal­ity can bring. [This one’s gone]

Hazlitt: Selected Writ­ings, edited by Jon Cook. Hazlitt is, for my money, the great­est of Eng­lish prose writ­ers, and he wrote on every­thing from pol­i­tics to poetry, drama to death. I’ve had a copy of this for three years, and it’s never left the pile on my bed­side table. You need this book.

Posted at 4pm on 05/06/03 by Jack Mottram to the art and culture, site news category.
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