that's the official bio of geoff dyer. the more sort of informal and briefer one says that geoff is one of the most intriguing and wide ranging intellects writing today period. he's written about world war i jazz, photography, d.h. lawrence with razor sharp insight and wit. he's a sol ideal revealing open-minded writer are. when an editor asked him where of all the places on earth he'd like to spend time to write about this lanky british individual chose an american aircraft carrier, and that is why we have his latest book "another great day at sea: life abrothered the uss george h.w. bush." you all can meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit and get him to sign his books for you. we want you to remember that sales of books during this weekend actually benefit the festival and help insure that we can continue to produce this event in the future. so we hope you'll meet geoff after the two of us talk here for a bit. so thanks for coming, geoff. >> oh, thank you clay. great to be here. thank you all for coming. >>

you are not here for may me you're obviously here to listen to geoff dyer. let me tell you a little bit about geoff. he and i will be in conversation for a while and we will open up for questions from you all. geoff dyer is the author of four novels to two collections of essays and seven genres by title and they are both beautiful out of sheer rage yoga for people who can't be bothered to do it the ongoing moment and known the epoch about tarkovsky's films. he is the editor of john burgess selected essays on the quieter of what was true, photographs of no books of william gedney. he's a fellow at the royal society of literature and an honorary fellow of corpus christi college at oxford. a selection of his essays entitled otherwise known as the human condition won the national book critics circle award. thus the official bio geoff dyer the more informal and briefer one says geoff is one of the most intriguing of wide-ranging intellects in today. his written about world war i jobs photography dh lawrence with razor-sharp insight and wit wit. he is a voluble rev

navy who said look i have discovered there are to geoff dyer's both that spell their names the same way one that writes these layabout novels and the others are perfectly respectable journalist with the financial times. please tell me it's the second one. [laughter] bet the person was trained and educated as a philosopher which means he is able to fudge these issues of truth. anyway they accepted me and that's how it came about. >> this may be the funniest book about the military that i have ever read and one of the funny things about it is yourself. you write quite honestly that you have a total inability to get used to things that you don't really want to get used to and when you showed up on the ship you have asked for a room of your own. [laughter] >> not only have i asked for a room i was really adamant that i had to have a room of my own. they wrote back and said you have to understand that sometimes there are 400 people to adore them. he's going to get vip treatment by sharing with just five other officers. i wrote back no, no no i would rather share with 405 because the more peo