Housekeeping vs. the Dirt

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: In this latest collection of essays following The Polysyllabic Spree, critic and author Nick Hornby continues the feverish survey of his swollen bookshelves, offering a funny, intelligent, and unblinkered account of the stuff he's been reading. Ranging from the middlebrow to the highbrow (with unrepent{ant} dips into the lowbrow), Hornby's dispatches from his nightstand table serve as useful guides to contemporary letters, with revelations on contemporary culture, the intellectual scene, and English football, in equal measure.


My Review: I've only just discovered Hornby and his reviews. I love them, because he's a snarkinator and because he's unafraid of reviewing the way I like to: Tell you show more about the book, but really why bother unless you tell about the reason you felt as you did about the book. Otherwise I can read the book description and be done with it.

So here we have the second collection of his columns, where I began with his fourth, and frankly it makes no difference because his method and his style ain't no different here. I like it, so I'm going to like it, but if one review turns your switch to off, put it down and never look back.

Oh, another thing I like about Hornby: A major, vocal, and persuasive propagator of the “if it bores you, put it down at once” school of reading. Many people, according to the wise Hornby, don't associate reading with pleasure because of some damnfool idiot snob's insistence that there are good books and bad books. Hogwash. There are well-written and poorly written books, yes, this is undeniable. But, and this is the most important point Hornby makes, it's not up to YOU o snob to say what anyone else on the planet should feel about those well-written or poorly written books. I've said it before, it bears repeating, and I think Hornby would agree: Get your nose out of the air, all you're doing is showing us your boogers.

That snarl of irasicbile disdain emitted, moving on to the reason I've rated this book lower than the first one I reviewed: This book has excerpts.

I hate excerpts.

I'm not a spoilerphobe, like some, although spoilerphobes are advised to use caution in page-turning for fear of seeing a word or phrase that might come back to you in reading the actual book. I am, instead, impatient. If the few paras chosen as an excerpt awake in me the burning passion to read the book excerpted, I want it NOW. With a Kindle, this greed and lack of self-control can be quite expensive. If I manage to make myself wait for the next trip to the liberry, it causes me sleeplessness and heartburn to pine for and yearn after the Object of My Affections Denied Me.

Boo on excerpts. Fie! Begone!

And, if I'm honest, the books excerpted here (five in total) aren't in the main particularly interesting to me. Excerpting Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis seems particularly bizarre and, in my mind, unsuccessful. Attentive readers of my reviews will recall my unimpressed-to-the-point-of-disgust response to Jess Walter's book Beautiful Ruins, and the excerpt from his earlier Citizen Vince convinces me that I simply don't like this man's writing. The agony, the torment of FORCING myself to wait until I go to the liberry tomorrow...twenty-six hours away! Ohhh owww...to get Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation is wearing on me, like waterboarding would. The excerpt did its evil, evil work here. And I'm pissed about it. So take that, Nick Bloody Hornby, I've knocked a quarter star off this book's rating! Ha! Muck about with my addictions, will you? show less

This is the second collection of Hornby’s essays from the magazine The Believer on what he has been reading each month and the connections between what he is reading and his actual life (it follows The Polysyllabic Spree). In this collection, Hornby really hits his stride. Not only are many of the pieces laugh-aloud funny, but there are several pithy nuggets that you will immediately want to read out loud to whoever is sitting next to you. And you will find some interesting reading recommendations to boot.

I particularly admire Hornby’s advice to readers and would-be readers, as it reminds us all to only spend our time on books that are “worth reading,” but that phrase – “worth reading” – differs for all of us. For you, show more it may be Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past; for me, it may be a deliciously dark thriller like Gentlemen and Players; and for Hornby, it may be the Motley Crue biography, The Dirt. But what matters is that you are enjoying what you are reading, that the book is bringing something to the table. Because otherwise, reading will become a chore, like school, and then bam! We’ll lose another one to American Idol.

Oh yes, and Hornby also has advice for writers: stop writing about writers. Enough already! To which I can only say amen, unless you happen to be Michael Chabon. show less

I gave Hornby's first collection of critical essays, The Polysyllabic Spree, 5 stars because I thought it was excellent. Well-written and hysterically funny, he writes about books like he's a book lover, not a critic. I liked it so much I went immediately to McSweeney's website and bought the next three collections. This is the second book and takes place pretty much where The Polysyllabic Spree leaves off.

Here's the problem: I like this one even better. At the risk of blowing what little meaning ratings have, I sort of need another 1/2 star to add to the 5 I've already given it.

The 14 essays contained in Housekeeping vs. the Dirt are the same format as The Polysyllabic Spree - a list of books bought, books read, and a chatty show more narrative about his thoughts on those reads. But this time the essays are even smoother, like Hornby found his groove at this point. Also, and I'm sure it's not coincidental to my added enjoyment, he had titles on his list that I've actually read (although he doesn't discuss any of them in this book). He includes 4 excerpts from the books he read and loved, and one of them I've added to my own list (Assassination Vacation).

It's going to be hard putting off diving directly into the next collection, but I'm trying to pace myself to string out the pleasure as long as I can. If you think you might enjoy critical essays that aren't very critical and have a bit of fun at the expense of pretentiousness, I definitely recommend giving Hornby's essays a try. show less

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 show more 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). show less

Hornby’s column may have switched magazines since the collection published in The Polysyllabic Spree, but it retained its acid wit. This edition contains 14 monthly columns published in The Believer, chronicling the author’s book purchases and what he’s read.

Along the way I found a couple books I want to read, but mainly I just enjoyed his writing. I love the sections where he talks about wanting reading to be a joy, not a chore. He gives such a refreshingly honest look at reading. He reads what he wants. He knows he isn’t always reading the “best” books, but he’d rather read something he enjoys.

I think I tend to read books I think I “should” read, but I also balance that with books I want to read. I’ve also found show more that I often end up loving the “should read” books more than the others. I think the important thing is just to keep reading no matter what.

BOTTOM LINE: Start with The Polysyllabic Spree and enjoy Hornby’s snarky observations.

"If I felt that mood, morale, concentration levels, weather, or family history had affected my relationship with a book, I could and would say so."

"We often read books that we think we ought to read, or that we think we ought to have read, or that other people think we should read."

"One of the problem, it seems to me, is that we have got it into our heads that books should be hard work, and that unless they're hard work, they're not doing us any good."

"If reading books is to survive as a leisure activity - and there are statistics which show that this is by no means assured - then we have to promote the joys of reading rather than the (dubious) benefits." show less

“Housekeeping vs. the Dirt,” published in 2006, is another in a series of collections of Nick Hornby's delightful columns printed monthly, or almost monthly, in Believer. That his column does not appear every month is something of a running joke in these columns, which ran from February 2005 to June/July 2006. From time to time Hornby comments about being suspended by the magazine's editors for making negative comments about the books he reviews. They supposedly tolerate only positive reviews. Yet Hornby's comments about the magazine, his editors and himself are often so fanciful that one doesn't always know what should be believed. Only when writing about books and literature in general does his commentary seem sincere and show more trustworthy.

At the top of each column Hornby lists both the books bought that month (although he also includes books given to him) and the books read that month. Then he writes about the books he read in a stew of an essay that mixes in other commentary, as well.

He reads quite a variety of books, mostly in the middle range between the high-brow and low-brow extremes and mostly contemporary books. Yet he does comment on Voltaire's “Candide,” G.K. Chesterton's “The Man Who Was Thursday” and Robert Warren's “All the King's Men,” each a classic from years gone by. Naturally the commentary that most interests me is that about books I've read and appreciated, such as Jess Walter's “Citizen Vince,” Marilynne Robinson's “Gilead,” Michael Frayn's “”Spies” and “The Trick of It” and Tom Perrotta's “Little Children.” He likes them, too, and one believes that his positive reviews are not just the result of some edict from Believer editors.

Hornby's book also includes a few brief excerpts from books he reviews that may entice readers to try them even if his reviews do not.

Hornby is himself a novelist, the author of such books as “About a Boy” and “A Long Way Down.”

If you think books reviews have to be stuffy, read Hornby's columns and think again. show less

A compilation of wonderful articles written for Believer Magazine February 2005 to July 2006 on books, reading and writing. Nick Hornby brings his breezy wit to play as he romps through (and reviews) a wide range of books from Candide to Freakonomics. Interspersed throughout are excerpts of some of the books covered. Of course, Hornby’s reflections are as much on the nature of reading as on the books themselves. Humorous turns include his never ending riff on the Polysyllabic Spree (otherwise known as the editors of Believer Magazine) and a disgusting line from an autobiography by Motley Crue’s bass player – so disgusting, Hornby includes it using the tiniest font possible and warning readers away from the magnifying glass. The show more short chapters and subject matter made it perfect reading for my daily commute, allowing me to pick up without losing my ‘train’ (*snerk*) of thought. show less