Читать книгу Ventoux онлайн

58 страница из 86

‘How’s your French? You’ve got to read the new biography of Anquetil. You’ll see the link between behaviour on the bike and view of life brilliantly illustrated. Do you know that Anquetil was disappointed when he won a time trial by twelve seconds? He thought it was eleven seconds too much. Brilliant, isn’t it? You can use that, or can’t you? Or else there are his views on love and sexuality? Haha! And then there’s Peter Sloterdijk, the German philosopher. He’s written very interesting things about …’

‘David, listen. I’m frightened I’ll never get round to writing if I read all these books you’re recommending first. I’ll die reading in bed without having put a single word down on paper.’

He looked at me in disappointment for a moment. Then he turned to the waiter who came to the table to take our order.

‘Two Wednesday, Henk.’

‘Wednesday?’, I asked.

‘Great. You’ll see. I don’t think we’ve ever eaten here on a Wednesday, or have we?’

David picked up the napkin from the table, laid it on his lap, leaned forward slightly, and looked at me. He was already over the disappointment.