so-soWh- um.... Okay, so, there's a solid portion of two or three of the essays in this little collection where I was following the thought process, and appreciating the unique points Perec was raising.
Otherwise I have to assume one of two hypotheses: either it made sense to him, he felt it was of enough value to write and publish, and I just couldn't follow the flow of the thoughts, OR he was kind of fucking with his readers, and he knew it. 1/?
What with the bulk of my reading material being on loan from the library, I very rarely eat and read at the same time, but Perec sure makes me rethink the possibilities of that experience. 🤔 😋📚🍴
🗣️ Why is my reading pace this slow? Because 70% of the time, I'm reading the text out loud to myself. It increases my focus and enjoyment. Whisper or shout it, whatever you feel is best. 😁
🍪🕊️ Get the crumbs!
pickOk, despite the title, this was precisely zero% use in helping advance my decades-long project of organising my books! 😡
On the other hand, it was thought-provoking, intelligent, emotional, funny, whimsical, serious, erudite and utterly bookish. I need more Perec!
"What is scandalous isn't the pit explosion, it's working in coalmines. 'Social problems' aren't 'a matter of concern' when there's a strike, they are intolerable twenty-four hours out of twenty-four, three hundred and sixty-five days a year."
"I write in order to live & I live in order to write, & I've come close to imagining that writing & living might merge completely: I would live in the company of dictionaries, deep in some provincial retreat, in the mornings I would go for a walk in the woods, in the afternoons I would blacken a few sheets of paper, in the evenings I would relax perhaps by listening to a bit of music."
He didn't mention cats, but obviously there must be cats!?⬛
I couldn't resist picking up this book simply because of the title, and I'm hoping the eponymous essay will provide the practical and actionable advice I so clearly need!
A selection of essays by Perec of which I'm on the first, dealing with Holocaust literature. Perec's mother died in Auschwitz, so a very personal connection to the subject.
panNot really enjoyable for me. I found this dense and a bit of a let down, a bit of a slug to get through despite being less than 100 pages. I would suggest this to fans of philosophy and writers like David Foster Wallace or Kerouac.
This is tempting...
Penguin have added to their Great Ideas series
https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/pen02/penguin-great-ideas.html
Brief Notes on the Art and Manner of Arranging One's Books | 
I'm usually the first to happily go down a rabbit hole in the debate of how to classify, or why a thing is currently ordered the way it is, but that last essay felt like 20 halted half-thoughts rather than an exploration, and that's uniquely frustrating for someone with an 1w
I think maybe Perec wanted to make the point a couple times over that people can get very wrapped up in arbitrary fussiness about record keeping and the grouping of knowledge, but, the thing is, I like getting caught up in that stuff! 🤷🏼♂️
⚠️Heads up, the very first essay goes in depth on literature/life stories based on experiences in WW2 concentration camps. 1w