Attention and Bibliomania

An Attempt At Exhausting A Place In Paris

Christopher Hawthorne | Punch List | 21st November 2025

Experiments in paying attention. The writer Georges Perec would sit in a plaza and “exhaust” it by naming everything in it, writing entries that read like an experimental poem. “I did feel, as I stood up to leave the square, a significantly sharpened sense of perception, not to mention a pleasing sort of mental calm. This might be a step toward building back up our atrophied powers of attention and observation” (2,000 words)

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In Praise Of Bibliomania

Ed Simon | Literary Hub | 24th November 2025

The desire to read can be sustained by a library card; coveting the book is its own beast. “When I have a little money, I buy books”, wrote Erasmus, “and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes”. Anke Gowda, an Indian sugar plant worker, acquired nearly two-million books. “Photos of his cramped house, where trenches have been made out of piles of books, make me simultaneously anxious and envious” (2,500 words)