Save Nothing

Thank you, pilot

It feels like Christmas. Hot off the plane from Washington, I have the new James Salter sitting on my desk beside me as I write, bathed in sunlight. Have you read it yet? Forget #amwriting, #amreading for the weekend. It was top of my wishlist, (it's a bit like receiving aid parcels when the pilot gets home from the US - his flight bag explodes with all the things you can't get here - books, magazines, favourite sweets for the kids - and last night, bicycle inner tyres and a dog bed). Thank you, pilot. It was genuinely more thrilling than if he had clicked open his flight bag and handed me diamonds from Tiffany's.

'All That Is' is a thing of beauty, a deckle edged hardback. Ebooks are a necessity, but there is nothing - nothing like the promise and beauty of a new hardback with an unbroken spine from one of the finest writers of our era. I haven't started reading yet - Salter's first novel in thirty years needs to be savoured. His work, above all, I love. There are writers and books you adore, and re-read again and again, (Ford, Boyd, Shields, Trapido, Sagan, Nin, Colette ... 'The Little Prince' ...), the intellectual equivalent of a crutch, or a shot of adrenaline, or a comfort blanket perhaps, depending on the writer and how you are reading at that moment. Then there's Salter. 

It's a little like admiring an Olympic athlete. His body of work is present and focused - lean, fluid, and beautiful. In one of his notebooks, Salter wrote the instruction to himself: 'Save Nothing'. There's that too, the sense of someone at the top of his game pushing himself even further each time, to the raw limits of his ability, constantly striving for gold. Anyway, you get the picture - I admire the man and his books more than I can say. If you've never read Salter, you're in for a treat. The first time I read 'A Sport and a Pastime' it was narcotic. 'Light Years' is still my favourite book of all time. When I found out via Twitter that Salter is going to be speaking at the South Bank in London at the end of May, I booked a ticket. Now just to figure out the logistics of getting there from the Middle East ...

Meanwhile (I feel like Wayne and Garth genuflecting: 'we're not worthy, we're not worthy ...' tagging this on to a post about Salter), 'The Perfume Garden' tour continues over at Female First. Have a great weekend, and if you, like me are putting the lid on your ink pen and reading not writing - enjoy. If you are writing, remember that instruction from a great man:

SAVE NOTHING.