A decent read, althought a bit self indulgent on the authors part. I laughed outloud a few times at his observations. He is good. I will give him that. ( )

OK so I didn't read this, really; instead, Sky read many long parts aloud to me. I feel like I read it. I feel like I loved it. ( )

Dud.

I like Nick Hornby; he's one of the very few British novelists whose work I keep up with. The concept seems ok and Hornby is a generous man, but the book just didn't work. Even more startling, you assume: must have worked better on the Web. Yet I don't think this entire series appeared online--maybe just some of the entries. I think one would have had to read them in the print editions of The Believer.

I thought he'd write at least a paragraph on each book--an off-the-cuff reaction. There's rarely even that!

Although I appreciate his honesty, I was shocked by the canonical works he hadn't and hasn't read. He has never read Robert Lowell, has no sense of Lowell's status, doesn't feel compelled to read his work after reading Hamilton's bio.

This great vista opened out of all the other post-World War II poets he hadn't read: Anne Sexton, Isabel Bishop, Adrienne Rich, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman and on and on. Hell, he probably hasn't read the Beats or New York Poets or Black Mountain Poets or John Ashbery. William Carlos Williams? Ezra Pound? Brodsky? Neruda? I don't want to think about it. Well, he apparently doesn't read poetry and never has. Awesome, and not in a good way.

But it gets worse: Until this series, he'd never read Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey. (He had read Catcher in the Rye, I think.) Hornby's writing style in his fiction owes a lot to Salinger so you're waiting for some little apercu about one of these stories or one of these books. Nada!

Also shocking how little in the way of translated literature he read. There were only two or three and they were classics, like Candide and Chekov's short stories, that he should have read decades ago. I read Chekov's short stories in high school, a mediocre high school, and again in college.

I know that a big difference between American, Filipino and British readers is that the former two tend to read a lot more Latin American lit. And Americans often read it in Spanish. But he's a fiction writer ... he seems to be cut off from one of the most vital currents in literature today. And it's not like he's up on Indians writing in English either.

I'm glad that I borrowed it from the library's paperback shelf. I'd be annoyed if I had lugged home a hardback. ( )

Required reading for LibraryThing members. I know Nick is somewhere here on the site when Arsenal is not playing at the Emirates.

A collection of Hornby's Believer columns. Hysterical, witty and fun. ( )

Hornby was the only thing I really liked about The Believer.

Hornby was the only thing I really liked about The Believer.

http://olvasonaplo.freeblog.hu/archiv... ( )

Opening Sentence: "...So this is supposed to be about the how, and when, and why, and what of reading -about the way that, when reading is going well, one book leads to another and to another, a paper trail of theme and meaning; and how, when it is going badly, when books don't stick or take, when your mood and the mood of the book are fighting like cats, you'd rather do anything but read the next paragraph, or reread the last one for the tenth time..."

This book is a series of articles that Nick Hornby wrote for "The Believer" Magazine. They chronicle his reading habits over fourteen months.

He writes as if he is chatting to you personally what he buys each moth, what he reads each month and tells you his likes and dislikes about the ones he reads. He also opens up on a wide variety of topics - his thoughts on sport, family and on giving up smoking. he is very eclectic in his reading choices - you just can't pin his preferences down - except to say that it needs to be well written.

The "Polysyllabic Spree" are the powers to be at the magazine and he is not afraid to tell us when he is given a dressing down by these strange beings - they grow in number during the book as well - starting off as "...twelve rather eerie young men and women, all dressed in white robes and smiling maniacally, like a sort of literary equivalent of the Polyphonic Spree..."

I read this book over a few weeks - dipping into a 'Chapter' at a time - was a lovely read and gave me insight into the author. I laughed at him, and sighed with him and felt that by the end of the book I had shared something personal with him.

A lovely book. ( )

I love Nick Hornby. I've only read his fiction material, but I think this book is up there with all of them. It's fun and funny to get insight on what one of your favorite authors reads and even better to find that sometimes (like yourself) that consists of only magazines. ( )

I enjoyed reading this novel about all the books Hornby had read over the course of two years. The book is presented as a series of magazine articles with each article being just the right length if you are in need of short sections, such as if you read whilst travelling. I liked the fact that his bought column was always longer than his read column! Just like me!

Not only do the articles discuss his love of reading but they also discuss why we feel we have to read certain books just because they are deemed winners or classics. It rang true with me on quite a few occasions throughout my read. You find out about what he has been reading and I liked the fact that he compared the novels to others at times, helping you make an informed decision as to whether it's a one you'd like to read. I came away from his book with a few recommendations of my own.

Written for an American audience he talks about which of the books he's read haven't been published there etc and I suppose his humour may have been presented differently for this audience. Nonetheless it is both informative and entertaining. So although Hornby says he doesn't like Amazon reviewers, well actually he's a little stronger, this Amazon reviewer is saying give the book a go. It's a pleasant read. ( )

I can't say that I've read much literary criticism, but I can safely say that this doesn't bear much resemblance. Nick Hornby's conversational style does do a great job of making you want to sit down and do a lot of reading. Extremely fun. ( )

When someone in the A Novel Challenge group mentioned this book, I wrote down the title because I needed some essays to fulfill a challenge. I picked up the book only intending to read one essay to fulfill the challenge requirements, but I enjoyed the first essay so much that I read the rest of the book. Along the way, I revisited books I’ve already read (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane) and found others that I’d like to read (anything by J. D. Salinger, The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, Stop-Time by Frank Conroy, How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer, Old School by Tobias Wolff, and So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid). Full review: http://passionforthepage.blogspot.com... ( )

Hornby opens up about his reading habits. How many of us buy books with intentions of reading immediately, yet most end up in a pile and are read in an order that somehow defies explanation? Like anything one does in life, perhaps documenting - perhaps keeping a diary will lend insight. Well, Hornby does just that - with lists of books purchased and books read. Hornby is always a joy to read. He is so good at describing how people think - including how he thinks. This book would have been even more enjoyable had I read all the same books he lists throughout his essays. ( )

http://voskenslaan.blogspot.com/2007/... ( )

Being "a hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read" there is nothing about The Polysyllabic Spree that I could not love. It's a delight! Funny, intelligent, witty and honest.

Unbeknown to me, there exists a monthly literary publication called The Believer, in which Hornby writes a column called "Stuff I've Been Reading." This book is a collection of those essays. At the head of each Horby lists what books he bought that month (or some of them) and what he's read, then plunges into observations on said books. How good or poor they are, what they make him think of, tidbits about the authors, the competition they have with football-viewing and the arrival of a new child, because "reading is a domestic activity, and is therefore subsceptible to any changes in the domestic environment."

This was the most enjoyable thing I've read in a long time. As a result of reading The Polysyllabic Spree, my first impulse was to go online and search for other collections of his essays on literature, and I found Housekeeping vs. the Dirt which was published last year. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Read the full review on Dog Ear Diary ( )

I've always enjoyed lists of what other people are reading. Hornby is always fun and easy to read. PS is great for finding new recommendations or hearing about Hornby's reactions to books you may have loved or hated. And the book feels good too. Not sure what it's made of. His review of The Fortress of Solitude is great. ( )

I am a huge fan of Nick Hornby's fiction. As a lover of books, his forays into literary criticism and his own obvious addiction to reading hold an enormous appeal. His descriptions of his own reading encourage me to venture into unchartered territory and justify my own compulsive need to buy books. ( )

This book was just so much fun! I read it in one sitting and giggled and snorted all the way through it. The author would fit right in here at LT, what with his "books bought" and "books read" lists. ( )

Rating : 5/5
Reason for reading : Something About Me Challenge and he is my favourite author

This is the first of two books (I got the American versions as it has only just been published in the UK in one edition but I couldn't wait that long!) by Nick Hornby which collect his essays from an American magazine called "The Believer". He keeps track every month of the books he has bought as well as those he has read. There are mini reviews within his essays as well as some excerpts from books he has read that month along the way.

What can I say, I LOVED this book! It's perfect for me, it's a book about books by one of my all time favourite authors so what's not to love?!? I love his writing style, very funny and insightful. It was interesting to learn a little more about his life in general. I knew one of his sons was autistic (I only found out recently though through buying another book he has edited "Speaking with the Angels") and that he is part of an organisation in the UK called Treehouse related to this, but it was intersting to hear his take on the books on autism out there and little details of his son.

The other good things about this book was I got some great recommendations on books for me as well as a book I want to buy my dad's wife for her birthday on a week or two. He also gave great validation for buying so many books, he confesses to not listing all the books he buys as some months it's an obscene number! He includes a great quote from Gabriel Zaid's "So Many Books":
"the truely cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."

I can't wait to read the next one. Thanks Athena for giving me a push towards getting around to reading this! ( )

http://dhamel.typepad.com/book_blog/2...
( )

Funny collection of articles the author wrote about which books he bought and which books he read each month. He has very eclectic reading habits. ( )

http://www.ilpotereelagloria.com/libr... ( )

Book Description
"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else," writes Nick Hornby in his "Stuff I've Been Reading" column in The Believer. "If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on point And every now and again you'd get a shock, because that happens in sport, so Back to the Future III might land a lucky punch on Rabbit, Run; but I'm still backing literature 29 times out of 30." This book collects Hornby's popular columns in a single, artfully illustrated volume with selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics under discussion. ( )

Kind of diary cum book review journalism--this is my first foray into Hornby territory. A lot of stuff I found very interesting. For instance Hornby's focusing attention on books (including fiction) relative to his son's autism. These included Charlotte Moore's 'George and Sam' and Mark Haddon's 'Curious Incident etc. etc.' Mr. Hornby is also something of a sports fanatic and somewhat of a modern music afficionado. Nothing wrong with that at least IMO. One should have as many interests as they can find time for. In respect to the books on autism they are of interest to me because my own son has Asperger's Syndrome (which is autism related) which is pretty much what the main character of 'The curious incident' has. I have read that particular book by Mr. Haddon and although the thought process of its main character are similar in some respects--there also seems to be too much simplification at times. From my own experience it can be frustrating for both parents and child--not always a lot of laughs is definitely a learn as you go situation but oddly it can have its rewards. Anyway to go back to Hornby--Hornby has his bought list and his having read list and sometimes they even coincide. He gives his opinion. He doesn't like everything he reads but his tone tends towards a genial--playful approach. The book does offer some intriguing writers and/or books too. Among those who caught my attention were Tony Hoagland, Julie Orringer, Patrick Hamilton and maybe Richard Yates. ( )