May 1, 2006

Geoff Dyer, "My Life as a Gatecrasher," Three Penny Review (Spring 2006): 10.

A short writing autobiography wherein Dyer explains that curiousity rather than expertise is his main driving force:

"In the autumn of 1989 I served some time at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers in New Jersey. I'd gone to New York to write a book about jazz and was browsing through the Institute's archives. One of the librarians was more than a little curious about my unsystematic rumaging. He wanted to know if the book I was writing was a history? No, I said. A biography? No. Well, what kind of book was it going to be? I told him I had no idea. Having made little progress with this line of inquiry, he turned his attention from the book to its author. Was I a musician? No. A jazz critic? No. Was I this? Was I that? No, I was neither this, that, nor anything else. Becoming a little frustrated, he asked, 'So what are your credentials for writing a book about jazz?'

'I don't have any,' I said. 'Except I like listening to it.'"