Bryce says that information is information, the medium is irrelevent. Pure data has no passion, no color. Sometimes, its not the information in a book, but the voice that carries it. That's where the artistry lies. Alberto Manguel, that bibliophile after my heart, is fabulous, not because of his far-reaching research and the associations he conjures, but because of the life he breathes into words about words.
Content is a still-life without that artistry.
Somehow, those are the wings I always bypass in the gallery. Geoffrey Ashe is horned-rimmed glasses and dusty mahogany furtniture. Dense and dry, but articulate all the same, with sneaky quirks of phrase which remind one that a bright mind is behind this commentary. Information removed from its source becomes suspect at best, a dead thing at worst. I don't even know where I've been these last weeks.