Stuff I've Been Reading

Stuff I've Been Reading (U.K. version) #2

by Nick Hornby

Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby - the bestselling novelist's rich, witty and inspiring reading diary

'Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,' Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine (taking off where The Complete Polysyllabic Spree finished), he shows us how it's done.

Or at least, how he does it: whether plunging into a biography of Dickens whilst his children are destroying something in the room next door or devouring a whole series of children's books whilst on holiday. Hornby is the intelligent, committed but sceptical reader we'd all like to be. Admiring Ian McEwen's On Chesil Beach, he points out a surprising anachronism. Reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, he wonders why 'unflinching' is a term of praise among critics. And who but Nick Hornby could successfully juxtapose a discussion of a book on the Band with one on the Stasi?

These accounts of one reader's experience of buying and reading, and sometimes not reading, books differ from all other reviews or critical appreciations - they take into account the role that books actually play in the lives of readers.

This book, which is classic Hornby, confirms the novelist's status as one of the world's most exciting curators of culture. It will be loved by fans of About a Boy and High Fidelity, as well as readers of Will Self, Zadie Smith, Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker.

Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic, well-observed novels About a Boy, High Fidelity, How to be Good, A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award), Slam and Juliet, Naked. His four additional works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch, 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award), The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and Pray are also available from Penguin.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Essays, 21st Century, Humor, Book Club, British Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Nicholas Peter John Hornby is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch (1992) and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. He has received two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for An Education (2009), and Brooklyn (2015).

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun to read. Books bought VS books read for a monthly column at The Polysyllabic Spree. It certainly added to my tbr. As he says: "The trouble with books is that you can never finish the job."

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an unabashed Nick Hornby fan so take my rating with a grain of salt (or don't, because if I think he is brilliant, there is a good chance I am right).

This is one of the many collections of Hornby's bookish columns from the Believer (in fact, I already read the second half of this collection, published under More Baths, Less Talking title, which has not diminished my enjoyment of it, including but not limited to the fact that I have memory of a goldfish) so if you're not sure you would like this, you can visit the magazine's website and read a couple to get the idea. Or I guess you could just read all of them there, not sure whether there is a paywall.

Anyway, these essays are absolutely perfect for someone like me who likes books, music, football, humor, all things British (despite my - mostly - Americanized spelling) and Nick Hornby. While this column is first and foremost about books, he manages to squeeze all of his interests into it, especially football (which is particularly hilarious considering the Believer is a US magazine). And since I share more interests with Nick Hornby than with both of my parents combined, I happily spend as much time in his company as possible (in fact, a Hornby reread is soon in order and a new book is coming out!)

I love Hornby's writing style - all those asides and parentheses might be annoying to some but I absolutely adore them (and, in fact, shamelessly follow Hornby's example, as illustrated by this very review) - and while his jokes might be funny only to a certain percentage of the population, I am quite happy to be part of it (or maybe I'm wrong and his jokes are universally funny - how would I know?) I love how you can guess which book he is working on at the time because his research filters into this column and it is really nice to have a glimpse of your favorite writer's working process.

Anyway, this is lovely collection even if you are not a fan of Nick Hornby but just enjoy reading. He has things to say and he's unafraid to share them with his signature humor.

[Anis Suhaila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turns out Nick Hornby has been doing monthly wrap-ups way before social media and any other Booktuber/Bookstagrammer. Man, I wish every non-fiction could be as fun as this. I may not read or have heard of the books he read but I sure had fun reading about him reading them.

Hornby is hilarious and I feel like we are the same kind of readers; in a kindred spirit/soulful kind of sense not in the types of books we read.

He's also a screenwriter and a fan of films so reading about how he came across Brooklyn (which I just recently watched) before he turned it into a film was a delight.

This is not a book just for readers but for writers too. Hornby says all the things I want to say to writers, especially those literary ones who think they are meant to be beyond comprehension.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles from the The Believer magazine that Hornby writes most months. In every article he starts with two lists: books he has bought, and books he has read. These lists rarely correspond...

He is an eclectic reader, and his lists make for fascinating reading in themselves. He some months says that he will never read fiction again, and the next month is reading Skallig as he discovers what YA fiction has to offer. He has a soft spot for comprehensive historical tomes, and quirky non fiction. he works his way through some of the classics, and extolls the virtues of Claire Tomlinson, a literary biographer.

The best thing about this book though is his attitude to reading. He is a great lover of all things book, he has completely disregard for celebrity books that inhabit the best seller lists, and goes on personal recommendations and what takes his fancy as he looks in a book shop.

Great book and a fascinating take on books from the perspective of the reader.

[فهد الفهد · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stuff I've Been Reading

كتاب لطيف يضم مقالات شهرية كتبها (نك هورنبي) لمجلة (The Believer) على مدى أعوام، تتميز المقالات بروح هورنبي الساخرة، وبمزاجه القرائي والذي يأخذك من كتاب عن كوريا الشمالية أو ريجان، رواية عن أزمنة خورشوف، إلى كتب كلاسيكية معروفة وحتى روايات المراهقين، المقالات ممتعة، وخالفت ظنوني بأني سأقفز بعضها.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, and hoped that Stuff I've Been Reading would offer much of the same. Contrary to my expectations, I actually found this rather underwhelming. Yes, he discusses some interesting and varied books, and gives recommendations, but there is rather a lot of material that is in no way related to reading and literature - for instance, an awful lot is written about Arsenal here, and there are a couple of instances where he did not read any books, but wrote a Believer column anyway, and included it here. I have added a few tomes to my to-read list, but feel as though there are far more interesting reading memoirs out there.

[Lucy H-W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is an echo of my review of The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, as this is a continuation of Nick’s column for the Believer magazine, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first volume; I smiled and/or laughed out loud at least once per chapter, usually more. I hadn’t even heard of most of the books mentioned in these columns, and yet I still enjoyed reading Nick’s musings on them, which I think sums up how much I love Nick’s writing.

And not only is Nick more educated than me in a literary sense, he is in a vocabulary sense as well. So as I did for the polysyllabic spree, I have kept a list of all the words Nick used which I intend to go away and learn:

Ephemerality
Sardonic
Relativist
Contrivance
Gentility
Effete
Laudably
Fallacious
Sui generis
Longueurs
Venerable
Obfuscation
Remunerative
Servile
Rectitude
Antinomian
Palimpsest
Egregious
Pejorative
Dotage
Contemporaneous
Aphoristic
Inexorable
Supine
Apropos
Eponymous
Brevity
Glibness
Inculcate
Insularity
Risible
Sanctify
Foibles

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Hornby seems to have similar, but not identical, tastes to mine, so I always enjoy seeing what he has to say about books, both the ones I've also read and the ones I haven't. It's like discussing literature with a friend. (Same goes for music.)

This collection of columns is quite tongue-in-cheek, sometimes verging on twee, but still good enough to make me laugh out loud. It's fascinating to see the number of books bought versus read (many more get bought, like most of us on Goodreads I suspect), which of those purchases got read straight away and which are held over for another month, or quietly forgotten, and how he goes through phases, like reading a lot of YA or suddenly discovering Muriel Spark.

It wouldn't be a Nick Hornby book without the occasional mention of football, or a snippet of family life, which adds to the feeling of having a chat over drinks.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books that are primarily the collected columns of a certain writer can turn out to be very good, or a very mixed bag.
Hornby's comes in the first category, and there's hardly a dull moment. The worst thing is that he inspires you to run down to the library and find all the books he's talking about (you couldn't afford to buy them all). Fortunately I've recently shifted to a small town and the library has only room for a limited number of books (including this one). And their catalogue system tends to be a bit erratic so you can't always believe what you find on it.
The best thing is reading about dozens of books and authors - many of whom you've never heard of - and enjoying what Hornby has to say about them, and why he loved them. (Mostly.) And then the next best thing is his tongue-in-cheek, back-handed-humour style of writing, which ranges over all sorts of things that don't necessarily have anything to do with the books.

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I think I read the previous book to this, another Nick Hornby ‘articles about books I have read’ a decade and a half ago and enjoyed it more. This failed to engage me really - I’ve not read any Nick Hornby novels for many years and hence my positive opinion of him earned a while back has waned. The format of this, recycling columns from some magazine, didn’t feel particularly good as a book. His decision to not discuss books he read and didn’t like made me feel he was being a bit false and sycophantic, lacking in critical thinking and even a little smug. However, what he did write about was discussed with insight and intelligence so this, between the less appealing personal anecdotes, meant I got a fair amount from the book.

[Doriane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essays with more book recommendations than I can read in this lifetime. I particulary loved Hornby's witty style and his hunger/love for literature which jumps from every page.

[Sannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about reading. It sounds sort of pointless, doesn't it? But Nick Hornby has such a distinctive voice that you can't help but enjoy the experience. Stuff I've Been Reading collects his monthly column from the magazine Believer where he has a list of books he bought and books he read. Why he chooses to buy some and read others is interesting and sometimes surprising. Like all of the other Hornby books I've read, Stuff I've Been Reading has witty remarks that had me laughing aloud, whether it was how he made fun of John Updike's choice of words or it is shameless self-promotion with self-deprecating humor. It's almost like having a conversation with Nick Hornby, which I will admit, I would love to do.

One other huge selling point for me: I am absolutely a list person. I love lists, and frankly, I feel like any regular Goodreads user probably likes lists too. Being able to read a list of books bought versus books read is totally something I do myself; the books that I add to my to-read list are completely different from the books I wind up reading because of recommendations, books received as gifts, and the ones I just happen to buy in the store because they looked interesting.

As an American, it was also funny to hear how Hornby sees American book culture. He loves Charles Dickens (which I frankly don't get because I can't get through anything Dickens wrote), pokes fun at Americans' lack of soccer (sorry, football)/World Cup knowledge, and reads quite a bit of non-fiction about American history.

I would definitely recommend Stuff I've Been Reading to book lovers, Hornby fans, and book loving Hornby fans. It's a quick, fun read and you're bound to find a book or two to add to your own to-read list.

[Alice]

DNF at page 63. Nothing wrong with the book, just can’t really get into it and the books being discussed are books from quite a while ago, most of which I doubt I will read. I think I got further with this last time I started it but I couldn’t remember where I had left off so none of it was new to me either.

[Tom Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, who has a magazine and wants to give me a monthly column to write about all the books I've bought and read, like Nick Hornby has?

I'd probably do it for free. (I'd rather you paid me though).

[Carol Hislop · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm glad I've got this on my Kindle because I will keep going back to it. It's very entertaining and has led to my 'to read' shelf getting longer

[BJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always fun to read Hornby!
Read what you enjoy, not what bores you.. 🤘

[Mykhailo Sapiton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of bite-sized, but witty and informative book reviews. Added a couple of interesting positions to my reading list.

[David Bril · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the UK version of Nick Hornby's stuff I've Been Reading Series. It takes the monthly pieces that Nick writes from The Believer and puts them together in one nice collection for series fans of Hornby's writing. This book combines the Shakespeare Wrote For Money and More Baths Less Talking sets we got in North America and covers from April 2007 all the way to Dec. 2011 (Nick took an almost year break between 2008 and 2010). The book cover is really neat, as the letters are cut out and the backing is read, it makes a cool image. Considering these were the later two books of the series, Hornby really found his stride here and the writing is extremely funny and always fascinating. Here s what I said about each:

Shakespeare Wrote For Money

This is the third book in a series, that takes Nick Hornby's monthly columns Stuff I've Been Reading from The Believer. In this book he covers everything from April 2007 to Sept. 2008. Notable books talked about in this set include, The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece, The Blind Side, Skellig, The Road, Holes, The Ghost, The Pigman. In this collection you get to follow Hornby (as sharp witted as ever) as he falls in love with YA books after reading Skellig. His sharp eye for what books would make a good movie (served him well later in life) as he thinks The Blind Side would make a great one (they made it and it was nominated for Best Picture in 2009) and his discusses about movies, which lead to my favorite of all these pieces, Stuff I have been watching, were Hornby writes about the Movies he has watched over the month which included The Simpsons Movie, Juno, This Is England and I'm Not There. By the third outing, Hornby really seems to be able to pick books that will interest him and that make for much more fun reading for us. There are a few abandoned novels this time around but not as many as the last two sets. This is a solid easy read through.


More Baths Less Talking

This is the forth book in a series of books that collect Nick Hornby's monthly Stuff I've Been Reading pieces from The Believer. After deciding he was going to be given up the column in 2008, Nick thankfully returned in 2010 and he came back sharper and funnier than ever. This set contains all his pieces from May 2010 to Nov/Dec 2011. Notable books in this set include, Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Brooklyn, Our Mutual Friend, The Psychopath Test, Friday Night Lights, Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and Charles Dickens: A Life. This may actually be my favorite of the series to date (though Housekeeping vs The Dirt is pretty up there!) as we take a fascinating journey with Nick. He starts off by telling us he is going to read only books that he knows will drive us crazy so we will stop reading his monthly pieces. Oh yes the classic Hornby humor is still in place. He reads a complete history of a city in his first two columns just to hammer the point home. We get to see Nick venture his way into the screenplay world here as he reads Brooklyn a book he is asked to adapt for the big screen. Hornby once and for all tells us that Charles Dickens is his absolute favorite author of all time (though it was VERY clear to anyone who read any of these books) and reads a biography of Dickens which he loves. He also goes back to his least favorite Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend which he admits he disliked the first time he read, but thought the stuff going on in his life made that happen not the actually novel. When he is asked to write a intro to Our Mutual Friend, he re read it and still finds it to be Dickens absolute worst book. And my absolute favorite moment of this book is Hornby's both shocking and hilarious one word review of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is a tremendous read!

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

862 - 2016

'Why do you read such random books?' a friend asked recently.

I don't know whether he is able to plot his own reading on a straight line, or whether he's found his genre and his fields of interest and he sticks to them, but either way, I'm happy with my randomness, mostly because it never feels random to me.

Exactly my opinion.

[Giulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I would enjoy this book - I didn't I found it a best a so-so read. I am sure if I read again I would hate it.

[Beatriz · Rating 4 out of 5]

DECEMBER 2015
Books bought:
An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sachs
Notes from the Underground, by Fiodor Dostoyesvsky (for a friend)
Stuff I've Been Reading, by Nick Hornby
Leah Remini: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, by Leah Remini (heard on Youtube)

Books read:
Leah Remini: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology (heard)
An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sachs
Stuff I've Been Reading, by Nick Hornby


The reasons why I gave "Stuff I've been reading" two stars out of five might seem extremely petty, if not unjust. Nevertheless, it must be noted that these two stars for the first time mean the "It was ok" Goodreads would like them to represent, rather than the"It could have sucked more" they usually do- the scale being, of course: 5: 'I'l be forcing this book upon my kids', 4: 'I don't regret not doing whatever I urgently had to do for work or school and reading this book instead", 3: 'Kind of like olives: some people like it, some people hate it; I'm there in the middle, I have olive craving days and olive passing days, but never a particular Romantic rage or passion toward them, whilst constantly wishing someone could have made olive oil out of them. I suppose it's the same with lemons, hum? Lemons, lemonade...But then the metaphore would have been all cliched and worn out. Let's stick to my brilliant olive piece'. 2: 'It could have sucked more'. 1: 'An Algebra Class should be more interesting.' Unless you are an Algebra enthusiast, in which case 1 star translates into 'It so far from an Algebra class, I nearly fell asleep'.
Anyhow, that is only my way of interpreting the star scale- here at Goodreads we believe you are free to see things however you want: you could even mix things up, like the Germans, and make 1 be the best score one could possibly get. Although, it would certainly cost you your Recommendation feed. Yeah, you better not do it, unless you are on some sort of rebellion against the internet robots who decide everything for us, and yet can't understand a shift in scaling system. Good for you, sacrificing yourself for a cause! It might just be worth having to buy a book filled with human reviews in order to decide what to read next!
But enough chit chat, let's talk about "The Books I've been Reading" (see what I did there?). As I have said, my problems with it are regrettably petty. First of all, I nearly died holding it- that's right, I have a very exciting life (...)- there I was, cheerfully engrossed in Hornby's thoughts on Austerity Britain while wondering if I should get up to find some Toblerones inside my bag, when the plane I was in nearly colapsed: due to turbulence, we took a deep fall into open air (Uff! That was lucky), and some kid, who was sitting by the wing, started screaming that it was on fire (It wasn't- kids are stupid and not to be trusted). Basically, we all thought we were going to die. Then another deep fall- then the pilot told us to 'Thank our Lord that we are OK' (which was deeply unprofessional to a country that prides itself in pretending to be a Laic State, but in which politicians make decisions entirely based on religion... Oh, well, we all know the story).
Unlike people who have had probably more entertaining near death experiences, I didn't see my life pass before my eyes or any of that cliche rubbish- neither did I see the person I love the most, which would have totally ruined 'How I Met Your Mother' for me had that finale not ruined that show already. No, I'm a more original being, full of light: all I could think of was 'Fucking God, the last piece of literature I'll have ever read cannot have been about women with vagina health problems in the 1950s!"- by the way, much like my country's State, I am also pretending to be unreligious most of the time. Truth is, God and I have a very close relationship, and I can adress him the way I adress my friends. So he understood that my dying in the middle of a Brasilia- Sao Paulo map of nonsense, whilst on coach, could not have been the perfect ending for me. In fact, everyone on that flight needs to thank me- because, hadn't it been for my close relationship to our Lord, we would all have been smashed into the Brazillian savannah- yeah, Brazil has a savannah. It's way less cool than it sounds (no African animals, just African vegetation. And some people I don't know. Hi, guys!).
But enough about me and my illuminated life, exempt of worries of any kind. Hornby's book was as entertaining as any of his novels- if there is something that can always be said of Nick Hornby (and by 'always' I mean in the four works by him that I read), he is never boring. His story might be rubbish, and he might be saying rubbish, but you will finish it 200% faster than anything else. It's true, I have run the proportions, having cronometered most of my reading time on my phone. Charlotte Bronte's "Villete" has been running for three years and seven months. It's almost a small child.
While Hornby's brilliant ironies never cease to be funny, and his imagination keeps working even as he writes non-fiction, the near-death experience thing made me think that maybe this wasn't one of the 1001 Books you should read before you die. It certainly shouldn't be the very last book. Suddenly, I wished I was holding 'The Old Man and the Sea', or 'Notes from the Underground' or 'The Catcher in the Rye'. But I'm getting existential here; my other petty reason will make more sense to you mundane beings who can't see the entire picture. My reservation is traced to the fact that I don't know whether I would like Hornby in person. It had never appeared as if while reading his fiction, but now that I have had an opportunity to watch him as a person (and not as a tomato with a typewriter) I am under the impression that some of his opinions sound quite dated to me. It's just that I am deeply annoyed by people from highly developed countries who think of themselves as leftists and yet repeat things that are stereotypically neoliberal. I myself hate Politics and Economy and all that, but it is very revolting to see a man talking about books written in white countries about Economy in white countries and think that this is it. This is how it is all over the world, except for Cuba and North Korea. I am certainly not a communist (I very much like buying things, and listing these things, as you can see above), but saying Socialism was a failed experiment is the same as saying that Stalinism was what Karl Marx projected in the first place. These ready sentences get to my nerves, simply because they limit people's views. Yes, Communism as it was sucked, and now it is no longer possible (or even intended) for us to recreate it, but there were some positive points to it. After all, it was the Soviet Army that surrounded Hitler.
In further attempt to be a leftist in a developed country, Hornby critizes Tony Blair after reading his biography, demonstrates sympathy for YA novels, and talks about hipster music. This annoyed me in a whole other way: despite my "Books read" list this month, I am a very posh reader, and I tend to immeadiately roll my eyes at people who find modern fiction better than classics. Even though I recognize this is a very arrogant attitude, I can't help myself- having grown up in a family where one could exchange accumulation of cultural capital for an overextended bedtime, and be subtly judged for reading or listening to anything older than The Beatles (Harry Potter was allowed, but because it was Harry Potter), I was raised to be a snob. I find conceptual works to be utter bullshit and roll my eyes at those "everything is art" idiots. And yet, I am somehow getting better- I am talking about Nick Hornby, after all. Although, to be fair, it was my vacation read.
Anyway, Hornby's declaration that he had read more current stuff than the classics alarmed me- not only because his recommendations were now less trustworthy, but because he had a go at Huckleberry Finn and thought it was 'meh'. Nevertheless, it is Hornby's merit to always mantain an open-mind. He does recognize that his prior reluctance to reading the classics was perhaps equivocated- and, on the process says something very wise about the way our education is handled, something I observed while I was at school, and the reason I didn't read anything they asked me to: we were not allowed to think about it, or have a dialogue with it. All that the teachers ever wanted was for us to run our eyes through it from afar.
Indeed, Hornby at times puts things so brilliantly that the passage turns into more than the hillarious ironies of his speech. His thoughts on "the books that will turn us into our future selves", for instance. The trick is, you can read the book and you still won't be the future self you pictured- you know, the one exempt of the conscious of a sequential narrative, who can be himself fully.
There are some pieces of observations like these throughout the book which do make it worth reading: make it you 1002nd book, if you have enough time. Although, I wish I hadn't bought the collection and instead had subscribed to the magazine. That way, my indignation toward some of these articles would have dialed down as the months passed, allowing me to have been more excited about some of the others.
Anyway, I'm thinking this will be my last Nick Hornby book for a while- the first ones I read were funny, but "An Education" gave me indigestion and "Stuff I've been Reading" wasn't quite as I had hoped it would be. Well, never do judge a book by its cover.

UPDATE (August 2017): Having just finished "31 songs", another compendium of low-key criticism of Hornby's, I realize I have been unfair to this book. I was still in shock from my near-death experience and feeling like I should spend my life reading really difficult stuff- meh. Glad that didn't last.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing about reading
Nick Hornby has collected together more of his book reviews from Dave Egger's Believer magazine into this volume, following earlier anthologies such as The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. Having found that an interesting read a few years ago, I bought this as a birthday present for my daughter. She liked it, gleaning some useful recommendations from Hornby's idiosyncratic, opinionated, intelligent reviews. I've enjoyed reading it as well (more, if I recall correctly, than I did the earlier collection). The wide-ranging selection of titles here suggests he's an omnivorous reader with sufficient reserves of time and curiosity to go just where he pleases: one of the genres he discovers he enjoys here is Young Adult (this includes a exultant review of M.T. Anderson's superb Feed with which I am in complete agreement). He's also very good at sharing his incidental discoveries, like this one on p216 which comes from a biography of Lucille Ball :

"F. Scott Fitzgerald used to watch Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz fighting? Why didn’t I know this before? If this story is true - and there’s no reason to doubt it - then all is chaos. No biography can be left unread, just in case there is a gem like this lying there, undiscovered, within its pages. Maybe Thomas Pynchon repeatedly bangs on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wall because she plays her music too loud! Maybe Simon Cowell and Maya Angelou are in the same book group!"

That this comes from the same column as reviews of a book about everyday life in North Korea and an explanation of the 2008 credit crunch gives some idea of the breadth and depth of its coverage. A nice, stimulating read, riven with the author's enthusiasm for the consumption of the written word.

Originally reviewed 16 January 2017

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the raw energy and many laugh-out-loud moments of this book! The final reflections were pretty special, too - if you are a writer, then just get the job done!
It's a collection of Nick Hornby's reviews written for The Believer magazine from about 2003 up to 2011. Rather than dry, stuffy book reviews, it’s an account of Nick’s reading journey, across a very eclectic range of books (including some Young Adult fiction and kids’ books as well). It's fascinating to read about books I've never heard of and those I've actually read. I keenly turn each page, trying to see if Hornby's opinion reflects mine (it almost always does!) and being tantalized by books that I might want to read.
Rather than think - this is from 7- 15 years ago, that's getting quite dated, I found that interval of time has given me the chance to read and reflect on lots of books, so that my reading journey/insights, could sometimes align with his. This made the whole reading connection very powerful, which is one of the main joys of reading. Nick's wacky humour and artistry with language are also not to be missed.
Anyone who can use the adjective ‘Gradgrindian’ with aplomb (yes, you, Nick Hornby) has my undying fandom. Note to self: read more Nick Hornby.

[Michael Mcmaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick Hornby posits that sometimes the brain knows what it wants. My brain, wandering around a bookstore in Cambridge, wanted a travel companion instead of the novels I brought with me from the US. This book turned out to be the exactly the type of anecdotal journay through books read that I longed for on a journey with a toddler. This collection of magazine articles hiding in the stuffy and large Literary Criticism section jumped right out and bit me. What a better way to spend a journey than not reading lots of books, but instead reading a book about someone else reading them. That, plus a fancy Brittish edition with a different title than what we get in the US (which I would never have picked up, because I'm too tall to sit in a bath tub, so a book mistakenly titled about reading in the tub seems offputting to me) as proof of my traveling abroad. Score!

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found out Nick Hornby did the screenplay for Brooklyn, a movie I watched with my mother and much admired. He also reads a Dickens biography which includes the famous anecdote that spurred on possibly the most exciting piece of literary journalism I've read, "When Dickens met Dostoyevsky" in the Times Literary Supplement. Required reading for any fans of Borges or the games of literary scholarship.

Otherwise, I might add some books to my TBR, but probably none of Hornby's. I didn't find much to admire compared to Andy Miller's Year of Living Dangerously, and considering Miller isn't a famous writer of fiction, it doesn't bode well for Hornby. Am I glad to have read it? We'll see, whenever I get around to reading some of the stuff he's been reading.

[Marie-Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun and entirely brilliant! Loved Hornby’s witty commentaries about the books he’s been reading and didn’t even mind it prolonging my already very long tbr-list. Though towards the end I could no longer relate as much to Hornby’s quests as a reader since he was heavily reviewing non-fiction, history and biographies mostly, in a way that does not quite represent me as a reader. To use the words of Philipp Roth, I myself don’t think I’ll ever quite “wise up” and discard fiction all together, and even though Hornby appears adamant that he would never do so either, he seems to have this tendency nevertheless.

[Hannah - The BookSirens Babe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful bookish collection of essays that give great insight into Nick Hornby’s eclectic reading habits. Each piece is brimming with candid, often humorous reflections on a particular book or author, from literary classics to pulp fiction, making the writing personal and honest. I am a little biased since Hornby is among my all-time favourite writers. Moreover, his commentary and enthusiasm are totally relatable when he talks about the books. The book is a must for all bibliophiles. I also recommend sitting with a pen and paper, as your TBR will likely be much longer than before by the time you finish reading.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nem tudom miért lepett meg, hogy ez a könyv tényleg dolgokról szólt, amiket Hornby olvasott. Ha szóba kerül mindig azt mondom, hogy a regények, kitalációnak tűnhetnek, de akkor is egy ember gondolatai, tapasztalatai. Minden könyvvel új embert ismerek meg. Ez a könyv is ugyanezt adja a sallang nélkül. Nem olvasó napló, hanem egy ember gondolatai időről időre, könyveken keresztül. Egy kedves karakter, akinek tudása és véleménye van a világ dolgairól. Olvasni ezt a könyvet egy kellemes kávéházi párbeszéd volt.

[Mel]

I didn't actually finishing this book, although I don't know how to say I have DNFed officially on Goodreads. The main reason is just time. I had reached my renewel limit at the library and had to return it. It was interesting, although very obviously a collection of weekly collumns, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I do think it would have been more enjoyable to read each week in that format.