'all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership'

perec was the one who wrote a book 'without any Es in it'? 

yes. it was translated as a void (also without any Es in it). 

perec wrote it under the influence of Oulipo - a literary movement that thought good writing came out of applying limitations to yourself. 

things is a paperback book in harvill editions - the ones with the little leopard logo and the stripe. it is  number 94 - should you wish to collect the set. they are good looking books, horsemouth has a few. 

it tells the tale of a generation. or rather a particular segment. young educated people who worked in market research and then spent their money on clothes and the cinema and decorating their little flats.

and (of course) that's exactly where we still are. every weekday morning the young couples from the converted into flats house up the road walk past horsemouth's window to go get coffees from the cafe up the road and then walk back conversing. similarly the young bourgeois couple from next door emerge and ferry the kids off to their childminding and education (and return with waxed paper cups containing steamed milk and coffee).

'all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership'. 

and these are the fortunate ones. they are there. they own and they still have enough money for a few little luxuries. in things  they are that post-war generation ascending out of material poverty into a world of richness and acceding to its demands. perec tells you their story at a distance. he gives few names. first names only. not so much characters as sociological types. 

the continuities of bourgeois life. 

the book itself contains some things (horsemouth's copy is second hand, from oxfam walthamstow, it is not uncommon to find things stuck in books as book-marks). a train ticket - brussel-nat-luchthaven (ok to brussel's airport) from january 1994, a postcard from the victoria and albert museum (a ruskin drawing of zermatt) also sent january 1994 to an address in islington (barford street), the sender lived near wallingford in south oxfordshire. also in the book an undistinguished and unset postcard from the royal academy (mark fisher, an orchard in spring, painting 1919). 

this kipple will continue to travel with the book. into horsemouth's stacks (for as long as he should keep it). 

'the trouble with market researching is that it can't go on forever.' 

horsemouth has yet to start in on the second book he bought the day before yesterday.

yesterday in the morning horsemouth went out for a wander on his own. he then got a phonecall from TG and walked down to see him and then off up in search of the bus. finally he wandered up to see minty at the cafe (and then wandered back to his before he went of to work). it was a beautiful sunshine-y morning.in the afternoon he sat out for a bit on the front steps reading. later he had a snooze. he watched the prisoner (the prisoner escapes to 70ies london, he's dropped off at marble arch). he failed to watch ingrid pitt in the vampire lovers, watching instead edwige fenech in sergio martino's all the colours of the dark (1972) - a giallo set in london with satanists. 

it's another beautiful morning. we have reached the weekend. 

there may be some of that child portering for horsemouth to do (or they may not). he's had his coffee. he doesn't go out for it (that would strike him as wasteful) but he has his own espresso stovetop pot and drinks lavazza red label. in a bit museli, the radio 4 news briefing (if it is on), then the guardian (online). later a look at the LRB or NLR. no the world at one today (it's a saturday). 

horsemouth needs to keep making the effort to thin down his collection. minty (over coffee) was recommending the book exchange (an arm of the famous record and tape exchange). certainly the art books seemed to keep their value. when horsemouth looked online the novels seemed to be worth pennies. he may just return many of them to the free book boxes, these are everywhere in horsemouth's neighbourhood (people just don't have the space to keep stuff the way they used to, especially books).