Beginning this weekend, formidable British author Geoff Dyer will begin writing a column for the New York Times Sunday Book Review entitled “Reading Life,” in which (the editors tell us) he will detail “the ups and down of his long relationship with the written word.” Today’s inaugural column, which you can and should read in its entirety over at the Sunday Book Review, is a delightfully witty takedown/celebration/parody of Michael Fried’s Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before, that is, the kind of writing in which you explain what you are about to do before, after, and while doing it, if you get around to doing it at all. The message we take away is that he isn’t about to hand us a first column that blithely discusses what he might write about in weeks to come, but rather wants to show us, as any author who has listened to their composition teachers knows to do. Reading it, we also remember what a funny and smart guy that Geoff Dyer is, so we’re excited to start reading his column every week. What did you think of Dyer’s first column? Let us know in the comments!