Housekeeping vs. the Dirt

Hornby writes a column about books for a magazine I'd never heard of (The Believer). Wry, witty, and impassioned, Hornby shares his love of the printed page here and recommends lots of interesting-sounding books. As if I need to add more books to my towering stack of To Be Read. ( )

[author:Nick Hornby] and I have pretty much the same way of going about reading--just sort of faff around and read what looks interesting, buy or check out a bunch of books and then never read them, give up halfway through if you're not loving it, etc. However, he gets paid to write about them in The Believer (a magazine that I would kind of like to subscribe to, but I'm also glad it's too expensive because I would probably never read it and it would sit on the coffee table and make me feel guilty) and I write about them for FREE for you people. ( )

Loved the first half of this, but hit a wall halfway through. I ultimately did as the author himself advised in the preface: I put it down and found something more pleasurable to read. ( )

Nick Hornby's discussions about his adventures in reading are super charming. ( )

There's not much to dislike about this collection of Hornby's typically entertaining book reviews, which are (interestingly) posted in the form of a monthly "Books Bought" and "Books Read" tally.

Hornby's reviews are a crisp and engaging as his novels, and while I haven't read most of the books he's reviewing, my "books to read" list grew alarmingly by the time I reached the end of the collection.

Hornby doesn't just review the books; he knots the books together into a rope, pointing out that nobody reads books in a vacuum; they follow one another, sometimes adding and sometimes detracting from the books you read before and after.

He also ties the books into the events of his own life, and overall, the effect is one of a very smart friend talking to you about his month's reading over dinner and a couple of beers.

I'm a Hornby fan and plan to read The Polysyllabic Spree (the first in the review series; this is the second), and Shakespeare Wrote For Money (the third).


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