Seattle Couple Has Obsession With British Authors

Will Self
The man first heard of Will Self's Cock and Bull in a 1980s issue of Details magazine and went on to purchase his entire catalog (as it was written), including obscure tracts only available in Britain. He went so far as to take cheap flights to the UK to scour small bookstores in search of them. He also went to the Groucho Club, where alleged former junkie and "enfant terrible of literature" Will Self was known to hang out, but he got booted out (it being a private club). When Will Self came to Seattle on a book tour, he was in the front row, and met the author afterwards but, alas, didn't get invited to have a beer with him in some dingy dive. He will no doubt order Will's upcoming book, Psychogeography, as soon as he possibly can. When shown the list of books from Will's website, he mentioned another one that wasn't on there, something about "psychosis."

Will has a blog at www.will-self.com

Books: Books
Cock And Bull, Dorian, Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe, Feeding Frenzy, Great Apes, Grey Area, How The Dead Live, Introductions, Junk Mail, My Idea Of Fun, Perfidious Man, The Book Of Dave, The Quantity Theory Of Insanity, Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys

Lawrence Osborne

The woman has an obsession with Lawrence Osborne, who writes for Salon and the New York Times. It started when she read Paris Dreambook: An Unconventional Guide to the Splendour and Squalour of the City, in which he wanders Paris subways and, in one instance, hires a Berber prostitute (with exotic teeth). This book she has read at least ten times and partially because of it, has gone to Paris an equal number of times. By coincidence, he wrote a book on Asperger syndrome (she works with Aspergers patients, which only deepened her fascination, particularly since he himself has a fascination with Iron Chef tv show and will only stay in Red Roof Inns.) This only makes him more intriguing, along with the fact that he claims not to have had a home for decades.

Recently, she got Fed-Ex'd his book about travelling to Papua, New Guinea via Dubai, Mumbai and Burma and is currently staying up late reading it despite the fact that she has to get up for work at 6 AM. Once, before heading to Paris, she once tracked him down via his publisher and he sent her an intoxicatingly cool email about where to get couscous and wine (& of course was intimately familiar with the relatively untouristy Place de Republique where she would be staying). She is rereading "American Normal" at work, slowly, and getting paid for it.

She thinks the best quote so far in his new book, The Accidental Tourist, is "When the neighborhood is described as seedy by some "Lonely Planet" prude, I immediately head there."

Books:
Paris Dreambook: An Unconventional Guide to the Splendor and Squalor of the City, Poisoned Embrace: A Brief History of Sexual Pessimism, Ania Molina, The Angelic Game, The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World, American Normal, The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall

Comments

[slugbug]

Oh no .. the woman just emailed Lawrence Osborne and sent him a link to this blog, with a message, "This may amuse you," and can't get it back out of cyberspace .. what a furtive, impulsive act.

[not my president]

Just to be fair, this link was also sent to Will Self's blog as well.

After all, it's publicity!

[not my president]

Email to Lawrence Osborne was returned:

-MAILBOX FULL-

[kayakbiker]

ken i have a book fetish, too?

[abbycat]

This couple seems vaguely familiar.