Reader’s Diary

Simon Garfield

Garfield starts his memoir by talking about the breakup of his marriage.  He implies that his stamp collecting had something to do with it, perhaps because he hid the extent of his purchases from his wife.   He ends with his divorce and the dispersal of his collection.   Despite the fact that he tells some interesting philatelic stories along the way, he never really makes his marriage part of the story which makes his use of it for a framing device rather pointless.

This is a good short book about a hobby that doesn’t interest me.  I do like reading about other people’s hobbies and I enjoyed the book, but I could have done without the mentions of his divorce and girlfriend.

Gary Stochl

Gary Stochl is a Chicago photographer who worked in isolation for 40 years, never showing his photos to anyone.  In 2003 he brought his work to Columbia College Chicago’s photography department, where department head Bob Thall recognized his talent and helped Stochl enter the world of art.

Stochl’s work consists of  strong, graphic black and white images the suggest what Robert Frank’s work might look like if Frank had striven for technical excellence.  They are street photography in which people are mostly graphic elements but never quite lose their individuality.

The history of Stochl’s work is nearly as interesting as the work itself.  The book made me wonder: how much unrecognized talent is out there?

(In 2005 the New York Times published an interesting article about Stochl.)

Danny Wallace

The subtitle describes this book.  British writer Danny Wallace took a list of friends from a childhood notebook and sought them out.  The results are funny and touching, a combination that is typical of Danny Wallace’s writing.