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Review
A charming memoir ... real intelligence and true feeling and sense of humour. That makes him [Rick] a great companion, and I would be happy, on a long train journey, to sit in between Rick and Matilda, the one very big, the other very small, but made of the same stuff. --Jeanette Winterson, The Times<br /><br />A wonderful account of a life immersed in books … which reads like a performance from a seasoned raconteur: extremely funny and seamlessly structured. --Independent on Sunday<br /><br />This is an intelligent, consciously disarming book, packed with ideas, jokes, good stories, small triumphs and larger regrets. --Sunday Telegraph<br /><br />Gekoski is as witty and entertaining as he is well-read. --London Review of Books<br /><br />This is an intelligent, consciously disarming book, packed with ideas, jokes, good stories, small triumphs and larger regrets. --Sunday Telegraph
Great fun. --Penelope Lively, Daily Telegraph
This is an intelligent, consciously disarming book, packed with ideas, jokes, good stories, small triumphs and larger regrets. --Sunday Telegraph
Great fun. --Penelope Lively, Daily Telegraph
This is an intelligent, consciously disarming book, packed with ideas, jokes, good stories, small triumphs and larger regrets. --Sunday Telegraph
Book Description
The captivating and amusing account of the twenty-five books that have influenced the life of bibliophile Rick Gekoski.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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. It contained a good enough mix of the familiar and the new to keep my interest throughout its 300 pages. Rick is basically an academic (ex-lecturer in English at Warwick University) turned rare book dealer, and has so 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.
Rick's book is not just about books of course, but also about himself, and I have to say, his life has been interesting. He writes about his childhood in a way which explains his love of reading, and like so many avid readers, their literary imagaination seems to have come alive through gaining access to an adult library at an early age. I remember at age 14 being able to graduate from the junior public library to the adult library, and finding riches there beyond belief. My own interest seems to have been in humour whereas Rick Gekoski seems to have got his rocks off by exploring his parents' extensive library of psycho-sexual literature, whether Psychopathia Sexualis by Krafft-Ebing, or Sexual Anomalies and Perversions by Magunus Hirschfield.
Thankfully this stage seems not to have lasted too long and in no time Rick was deep in Holden Caulfield's life in Catcher in The Rye. And then Rick read T S Eliot, The Waste Land and his reading perceptions were changed forever. Isn't the pleasure of reading a book like Outside of a Dog so much to do with discovering shared experiences, that sense of inwardly saying, Ah yes, when the writer enthuses about one's own literary loves?
Rick progresses through some fairly esoteric stuff on his journey to Silence of the Lambs (and yes, I agree, even Robert Harris deserves a place in the canon because of his creation of Hannibal Lecter, a character so real he must jump off any page that contains a mention of him). But to reach Lecter we progress through R D Laing, Germaine Greer (this is a very 60s list at this point), and even touches on Hume, Descartes and A J Eyer.
I was quite pleased to see Carl Hiassen in Rick's list, for we must all have some lighter reads to keep us going and it was also fascinating to read Rick's encounters with the Cambridge spies - Kim Philby etc. Rick actually travelled to Moscow to meet Mrs Philby.
This really is a very interesting book which must keep any avid reader interested throughout its pages. I reached the end and could have done with more, and what greater tribute to a book is there than that? Its a great book to dip into, and also one to read from cover to cover in a couple of days. I am sure it will remain on my shelves as a regular reference point and I'm pleased I bought it.
Rick's book is not just about books of course, but also about himself, and I have to say, his life has been interesting. He writes about his childhood in a way which explains his love of reading, and like so many avid readers, their literary imagaination seems to have come alive through gaining access to an adult library at an early age. I remember at age 14 being able to graduate from the junior public library to the adult library, and finding riches there beyond belief. My own interest seems to have been in humour whereas Rick Gekoski seems to have got his rocks off by exploring his parents' extensive library of psycho-sexual literature, whether Psychopathia Sexualis by Krafft-Ebing, or Sexual Anomalies and Perversions by Magunus Hirschfield.
Thankfully this stage seems not to have lasted too long and in no time Rick was deep in Holden Caulfield's life in Catcher in The Rye. And then Rick read T S Eliot, The Waste Land and his reading perceptions were changed forever. Isn't the pleasure of reading a book like Outside of a Dog so much to do with discovering shared experiences, that sense of inwardly saying, Ah yes, when the writer enthuses about one's own literary loves?
Rick progresses through some fairly esoteric stuff on his journey to Silence of the Lambs (and yes, I agree, even Robert Harris deserves a place in the canon because of his creation of Hannibal Lecter, a character so real he must jump off any page that contains a mention of him). But to reach Lecter we progress through R D Laing, Germaine Greer (this is a very 60s list at this point), and even touches on Hume, Descartes and A J Eyer.
I was quite pleased to see Carl Hiassen in Rick's list, for we must all have some lighter reads to keep us going and it was also fascinating to read Rick's encounters with the Cambridge spies - Kim Philby etc. Rick actually travelled to Moscow to meet Mrs Philby.
This really is a very interesting book which must keep any avid reader interested throughout its pages. I reached the end and could have done with more, and what greater tribute to a book is there than that? Its a great book to dip into, and also one to read from cover to cover in a couple of days. I am sure it will remain on my shelves as a regular reference point and I'm pleased I bought it.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Printed on the dust jacket of this book is an endorsement from Tatler which reads 'Think Bill Bryson, only on Boooks'. This, and its source, are a pretty good summing up of the contents: if you are the kind of person who likes Tatler, you'll probably like this; if you're the kind of person who loves Bill Bryson, you'll love it.
This is the life-in-books of Rick Gekoski, ex-professor of literature, and dealer in rare books and manuscripts, man-about-town and compulsive name-dropper - a person admirably in tune with the Zeitgeist. Rick's reading life starts with Dr.Seuss, moves through the Hardy Boys, and after a precocious deviation into the exciting world of psycho-sexual manuals, moves onwards and upwards to J.D.Salinger, Ken Kesey and D.H.Lawrence. Unwelcome maturity comes with prescribed texts by Descartes, Hume and 'Freddy' Ayer, Finally Rick undergoes a premature epiphany, discovering Roald Dahl among his childrens' Christmas presents and avoiding the longeurs of the festive day by reading Roald all afternoon while locked in the loo, much to the annoyance of his wife and the slightly lesser annoyance of his children: they want to read the book themselves - or that's what they say - but clever Rick can see that this is the wife's ploy to get him stuck into the washing up, and he keeps the closet door well-locked. Getting stuck into Carl Hiaasen, 'Rick' is amazed to find that he's unconsciously struck gold with a book that has made it on to Colum Toibin's list of 200 Best Books since the War.
'Outside of a Dog' is amusingly exhibitionist - Rick finds himself quite fascinating, owns an Epstein bust of T.S.Eliot to which he waves good-bye every night on leaving the Office, and has known everyone from Grahame Green to Salman Rushdie, and from John Bayley to Germaine Greer. Less amusing for the reader (and presumably for them) is Rick's exhibition of his family as well. One can scarcely think that Rick's ex-wife Barbara will be indifferent to his portrayal of her pyschiatric difficulties and pretensions to setting up as a psychotherapist, or that his daughter, Anna, whom he presents as a would-be Clarice Starling, will be unembarrassed at being put on public display as a serial-killer wannabe groupie.
Still, for all the ruthless self-advertisement, there's no denying that the book has chutzpah - the comparison with Bill Bryson is by no means misleading - but it's bubblegum, really. That the real Rick Gekoski is a more interesting man than this unattractive piece of self-advertising suggests became clear to me when I heard him discussing antiquarian books on the wireless.
Pity.
This is the life-in-books of Rick Gekoski, ex-professor of literature, and dealer in rare books and manuscripts, man-about-town and compulsive name-dropper - a person admirably in tune with the Zeitgeist. Rick's reading life starts with Dr.Seuss, moves through the Hardy Boys, and after a precocious deviation into the exciting world of psycho-sexual manuals, moves onwards and upwards to J.D.Salinger, Ken Kesey and D.H.Lawrence. Unwelcome maturity comes with prescribed texts by Descartes, Hume and 'Freddy' Ayer, Finally Rick undergoes a premature epiphany, discovering Roald Dahl among his childrens' Christmas presents and avoiding the longeurs of the festive day by reading Roald all afternoon while locked in the loo, much to the annoyance of his wife and the slightly lesser annoyance of his children: they want to read the book themselves - or that's what they say - but clever Rick can see that this is the wife's ploy to get him stuck into the washing up, and he keeps the closet door well-locked. Getting stuck into Carl Hiaasen, 'Rick' is amazed to find that he's unconsciously struck gold with a book that has made it on to Colum Toibin's list of 200 Best Books since the War.
'Outside of a Dog' is amusingly exhibitionist - Rick finds himself quite fascinating, owns an Epstein bust of T.S.Eliot to which he waves good-bye every night on leaving the Office, and has known everyone from Grahame Green to Salman Rushdie, and from John Bayley to Germaine Greer. Less amusing for the reader (and presumably for them) is Rick's exhibition of his family as well. One can scarcely think that Rick's ex-wife Barbara will be indifferent to his portrayal of her pyschiatric difficulties and pretensions to setting up as a psychotherapist, or that his daughter, Anna, whom he presents as a would-be Clarice Starling, will be unembarrassed at being put on public display as a serial-killer wannabe groupie.
Still, for all the ruthless self-advertisement, there's no denying that the book has chutzpah - the comparison with Bill Bryson is by no means misleading - but it's bubblegum, really. That the real Rick Gekoski is a more interesting man than this unattractive piece of self-advertising suggests became clear to me when I heard him discussing antiquarian books on the wireless.
Pity.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
`To look at those (few) books in the dawning recognition that what they furnish is not a room, but a self.'
19 Mar 2010
Format:Hardcover
Rick Gekoski has named his bibliomemoir after the Groucho Marx assertion: `Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.' This title seems appropriate for a book tour of the 25 books that are special to Rick Gekoski, and the particular circumstances of their specialness. Bibliomemoir, seems like just the right word to describe the journey.
What I most enjoyed about this book was the eclecticism of the choices, neatly bound together by Dr Gekoski's life as a unifying thread. Worth noting, too, is that not all of the books have been selected for their own content. Take, for example, the choice of `Spycatcher' by Peter Wright. The significance of this book has little to do with its contents; instead it signifies people, places and events intersecting with Rick Gekoski's life.
I've always been fascinated by the books prolific readers identify as having been influential in their lives. My own list might include two or three of the authors chosen by Rick Gekoski, but I have learned far more about him from the other books on the list. It isn't so much the books chosen that make this such an interesting read, it is the way that each book represents a particular aspect of his life. Consider Dr Seuss's `Horton Hatches the Egg' as a window into his childhood life; or Germaine Greer's `The Female Eunuch' as a signpost in his academic life. Interesting views indeed!
I enjoyed this book, although I have some reservations about the candid portrayals of various family members. Still, I rationalise that if books are great formative influences in our lives, then family members and personal relationships must be as well. For me, the book starts and ends with one question: `How do books make us?'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
What I most enjoyed about this book was the eclecticism of the choices, neatly bound together by Dr Gekoski's life as a unifying thread. Worth noting, too, is that not all of the books have been selected for their own content. Take, for example, the choice of `Spycatcher' by Peter Wright. The significance of this book has little to do with its contents; instead it signifies people, places and events intersecting with Rick Gekoski's life.
I've always been fascinated by the books prolific readers identify as having been influential in their lives. My own list might include two or three of the authors chosen by Rick Gekoski, but I have learned far more about him from the other books on the list. It isn't so much the books chosen that make this such an interesting read, it is the way that each book represents a particular aspect of his life. Consider Dr Seuss's `Horton Hatches the Egg' as a window into his childhood life; or Germaine Greer's `The Female Eunuch' as a signpost in his academic life. Interesting views indeed!
I enjoyed this book, although I have some reservations about the candid portrayals of various family members. Still, I rationalise that if books are great formative influences in our lives, then family members and personal relationships must be as well. For me, the book starts and ends with one question: `How do books make us?'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Well written, erudite, but Gekowski comes across as unlikeable
I admit I have not yet finished this book (about 2/3 of the way through).
It is well written, at times amusing, and above all *interesting* (i.e. Read more
It is well written, at times amusing, and above all *interesting* (i.e. Read more
Published 6 months ago by bryantookey
I read therefore I am
A memoir with books is a good description of the autobiographical excursion through the books which have made Rick Gekoski what he is today. Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Damaskcat
Rare and desirable
Following on from the writer's splendidly entertaining "Tolkien's Gown", this is a further foray into the specialised world of rare and notable books and even rarer and more... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2009 by David Fanning
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