Daniel Sturgis selects two books by American author Nicholson Baker - his first novel 'The Mezzanine' published in 1988 and 'Room Temperature' in 1990. Both portray the mindful meanderings of the protagonist, from tender moments to an astonishing level of detail, often with a good dollop of amusement. In 'The Mezzanine', we spend a lunch hour with Howie as he fixates on the micro-details of staplers, Scotch tape, escalators and an assortment of other office paraphernalia, as well as his family, returning continually to his astonishment that both his shoelaces have broken within days of one another. 'Room Temperature' takes place across a mere 20 minutes as Howie recalls a series of domestic specifics, largely around his wife Patty, as he nurses their baby Bug.

DANIEL STURGIS

danielsturgis.co.uk

BOOKS, WRITERS, SCREEN

'A Mark on the Wall' 1917 Virginia Woolf

'Fly' 2010 Season 3, Episode 10 from 'Breaking Bad'

'City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara' 1993 by Brad Gooch

'The Diary of a Nobody' 1892 George and Weedon Grossmith 

'Great Expectations' 1860 by Charles Dickens

John Updike

'Mr Bean' series 1990 starring Rowan Atkinson

'No Lab: A Novel' 2019 by Richard Roth 

'The Journal of a Disappointed Man' 1919 by W. N. P. Barbellion

Paul Auster

ARTISTS, DESIGNERS, CRITICS

Barney Bubbles

Benjamin Buchloh

Dan Walsh

Emma Hart

Francesco Borromini

Gerhard Richter

Ian Hamilton Finlay

Frances Richardson

Jeremy Moon

Le Corbusier

Leonardo da Vinci

Michael Bracewell

Patrick Caulfield

Peter Kinley

Pontormo

Prunella Clough

Shila Khatami

Sonia Delaunay

GALLERIES

Chelsea Space, London

Luca Tommasi, Milan

Martina Geccelli

PS Project Space, Amsterdam

Raumx, London

Rocket Gallery, London