The fine print - Rated 
I read through this book at my usual pace, walking the dog , on the train to work , waiting in the pub for friends, in the bath, waiting for pizza, basically the usual haunts of the book addict. This book articulated my relationship with books from the tendancy to over buy books given the constraints on my time to read them, to my hatred for plot-divulging revues (the irony isnt lost). Hornby's key critical capabilities are boosted by the limitations put on him by the editors of the magazine he writes the column for,i.e. no direct criticism of the writer or writing allowed. This makes for a really wonderful discourse on his relationship with the books he reads and his enthusiasm for the books he chooses to read is infectious. Beyond this though the humour is what makes this book special. I think even if you took away my constant empathy with the author (I walked around nodding my head as I walked into lamposts) the humour alone would have kept me captivated. Ironically enough the first lesson of the book is that life is too short to read books that you dont like , put them down, move on - a great piece of advice that I intend to keep with. However I must say the first pages of this book took a while to get going while the rapport and standing jokes matured. If I had followed the advice in that first chapter I would have missed out on one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. Dont be put off by the fact that it is a book of articles (this was almost enough to turn me away from the start), but being a fan of the author's novels I decided to give it a go, absolutely no regrets.
Great book about books - Rated 
This is a great book about books and about the whole process of reading and a bit about the process of writing. It made me curious about many books. I didn't necessarily feel like reading them, though Hornby's writing about them is always compelling. I felt more like hanging out at Nick Hornby's pub or having a season ticket close to his. I hope there'll be a volume 2 of his columns for The Believer.
There's no cure for the Polysyllabic Spree.... - Rated
Put simply this is about the travails of a book addict writing about his 'addiction' for an American magazine, and emerging from the task with an understanding about the nature of buying, reading and criticizing books. This is very sharp and snappy stuff and makes you realize just how smart the ever humble Nick Hornby is.
One of the other great things about 'The Spree' of course is that it justifies every book addict's addiction and as such will act as a key piece of evidence when your book shelves finally collapse onto some poor soul and you need to defend yourself in a Tort case. Great stuff.
It made me get on the 'order now' button - Rated
For me one way of assessing how good a book is, is the length of time it takes me to finish it (I exclude War and Peace etc. from this sort of judgment). I finished this collection of Hornby's over a weekend. I like his honesty and his unpretentiousness and his humour. Even the chapter headings rang a bell i.e. books bought in a particular month in one column and the books actually read in a much shorter column. We've all been there.
Anyway, soon after finishing it, I ordered two of the books reviewed, put others on a list and recommended one to my daughter who doesn't read fiction a lot.
|
