- Selections from the monthly Believer Magazine column by this best selling author - Hornby's "diary of an avid reader" In his monthly column "Stuff I've Been Reading," Hornby lists the books he's purchased that month, and briefly discusses the books he's actually read. NIck Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree Includes selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics discussed in the column.
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About the Author
Nick Hornby is the best-selling author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to Be Good, Fever Pitch, and Songbook. He lives in London.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Alex Boyd
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Nick Horby isn't afraid to be real. A collection of fourteen months of his essays from Believer magazine, The Polysyllabic Spree is honest, smart, and down to earth. Every month he lists what he bought, what he read, and every month the list of what he bought outgrows his reading despite steady efforts, only occasionally thrown off by things like getting caught up in football matches, or his children. Any regular reader knows there's always a crowded bookshelf waiting, even as books we loved fade from memory and cry out to be read again ("But when I tried to recall anything about it other than its excellence, I failed. Maybe there was something about a peculiar stepfather?"). And as Hornby acknowledges later "Boredom and, very occasionally, despair are part of the reading life." So why do we bother, and why do we do the work?
The answers are, I think, pretty straightforward. The books we've forgotten still made an impression on us, settled somewhere in the corners of our minds like, um, mold. And why do the work? We do the work for the rewards, and Hornby knows that too. He puts a logical, personal weight into these mini-reviews, giving the reader solid reasons to read (or consider leaving aside) a book. A book of stories strikes a good balance for being "literary in the sense that they're serious, and will probably be nominated for prizes, but they're unliterary in the sense that they could end up mattering to people." Or, "We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they're badly read, too." It's as unpretentious and straightforward as a friend's advice in a pub, so it gathers a little of that trustworthiness as well.
The answers are, I think, pretty straightforward. The books we've forgotten still made an impression on us, settled somewhere in the corners of our minds like, um, mold. And why do the work? We do the work for the rewards, and Hornby knows that too. He puts a logical, personal weight into these mini-reviews, giving the reader solid reasons to read (or consider leaving aside) a book. A book of stories strikes a good balance for being "literary in the sense that they're serious, and will probably be nominated for prizes, but they're unliterary in the sense that they could end up mattering to people." Or, "We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they're badly read, too." It's as unpretentious and straightforward as a friend's advice in a pub, so it gathers a little of that trustworthiness as well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By NorthVan Dave
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I picked this book up because I greatly enjoyed Hornby's first novel High Fidelity. I've read several other Hornby novels since then, but none of them have captured the greatness of High Fidelity; at least in my opinion. So needless to say I wasn't going in to this book with very high expectations.
But I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly pleased with this book.
The Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of Hornby columns from when he wrote for a magazine in the UK. The premise of each essay, and indeed the book, is that Hornby was writing about his constant battle to read as many books as he bought. But it would seem that the tide of books bought and/or given to him continually won out over the volume of books he was able to read. A pain I know all to well since there always seems to be more books than I'm capable of reading.
What I liked about the series of essays is that Hornby did a good job of explaining why he read the books he did, and why he abandoned (or didn't like) the books he did. And of course he managed to do it with his trademark humour.
All in all I enjoyed this book.
But I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly pleased with this book.
The Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of Hornby columns from when he wrote for a magazine in the UK. The premise of each essay, and indeed the book, is that Hornby was writing about his constant battle to read as many books as he bought. But it would seem that the tide of books bought and/or given to him continually won out over the volume of books he was able to read. A pain I know all to well since there always seems to be more books than I'm capable of reading.
What I liked about the series of essays is that Hornby did a good job of explaining why he read the books he did, and why he abandoned (or didn't like) the books he did. And of course he managed to do it with his trademark humour.
All in all I enjoyed this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars
42 reviews
57 of 59 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Brief History of One Author's Reading Habits
Dec 11 2004
By Clare Quilty
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I always enjoy it when, during interviews, journalists will mention something that their subject is reading, watching or listening to. An early Rolling Stone profile of R.E.M., for example, once mentioned that Peter Buck was buying a copy of a book by Jim Carroll, which pointed me the way to "The Basketball Diaries," a book that warped my then-young mind like a breath of fresh airplane glue.
I'm also a big fan of Nick Hornby's writing, so "The Polysyllabic Spree" is double the pleasure for me because it's a series of articles he wrote for "The Believer," chronicling his reading habits for the better part of a year.
In his typical conversational style, Hornby simply lays out his likes and dislikes, offering the reader potential listings for their own reading lists.
I'm an avid but severely undisciplined reader and was heartened to read that even a bestselling author sometimes sets aside a great novel in favor of a football game.
Just as "Songbook" was Hornby's meditation on music and life and living, "The Polysyllabic Spree" is a quick (I would contend *too* quick) and friendly tour of his bookshelf. It's also one that's rich enough to make the reader wish he'd go on and wax rhapsodic about, for example, what movies he's into these days or what TV shows he's digging -- that's the mark of a truly apt critic and writer.
I'm also a big fan of Nick Hornby's writing, so "The Polysyllabic Spree" is double the pleasure for me because it's a series of articles he wrote for "The Believer," chronicling his reading habits for the better part of a year.
In his typical conversational style, Hornby simply lays out his likes and dislikes, offering the reader potential listings for their own reading lists.
I'm an avid but severely undisciplined reader and was heartened to read that even a bestselling author sometimes sets aside a great novel in favor of a football game.
Just as "Songbook" was Hornby's meditation on music and life and living, "The Polysyllabic Spree" is a quick (I would contend *too* quick) and friendly tour of his bookshelf. It's also one that's rich enough to make the reader wish he'd go on and wax rhapsodic about, for example, what movies he's into these days or what TV shows he's digging -- that's the mark of a truly apt critic and writer.
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can't not like him
Feb 1 2005
By C. Ebeling
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am attracted to books that discuss the author's reading and ideas about it and inevitably I get so far and wonder, why aren't I out there reading for myself instead of holding this person's hand? Not so with this, which is over far too soon. Hornby, riffing about his own reading, his life, his outlook, is holding the reader's hand.
The title would suggest a word riot, which THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE is, but it is also the name Hornby puts to the murkily protean powers that be at "The Believer Magazine" where the book was born in monthly columns. Each month's chapter begins like an entry in Bridget Jones's Diary, books bought, books actually read, then leaps off into what happened, what he actually read, what he thought about it, how it connects (and sometimes does not, like when one's football team is on the television) to life. Hornby is very funny, and also very serious. He is also full of contagious, unabashed wonder. He is quick to skewer pretension or gratuitous content. His style is highly caffeinated and raspy from nicotine, hilariously hyperbolic one moment, piercingly specific the next. He is willing to say he is wrong or doesn't know. He keeps it all about our mutual love of reading, but divulges other insights along the way, like what it's like to be the dad of an autistic child, to become a father for the third time, to try unsuccessfully to quit smoking, to be a writer amongst all the reading, the parenting and everything else going on.
The proceeds of this book go to charity. How can you not like this guy?
The title would suggest a word riot, which THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE is, but it is also the name Hornby puts to the murkily protean powers that be at "The Believer Magazine" where the book was born in monthly columns. Each month's chapter begins like an entry in Bridget Jones's Diary, books bought, books actually read, then leaps off into what happened, what he actually read, what he thought about it, how it connects (and sometimes does not, like when one's football team is on the television) to life. Hornby is very funny, and also very serious. He is also full of contagious, unabashed wonder. He is quick to skewer pretension or gratuitous content. His style is highly caffeinated and raspy from nicotine, hilariously hyperbolic one moment, piercingly specific the next. He is willing to say he is wrong or doesn't know. He keeps it all about our mutual love of reading, but divulges other insights along the way, like what it's like to be the dad of an autistic child, to become a father for the third time, to try unsuccessfully to quit smoking, to be a writer amongst all the reading, the parenting and everything else going on.
The proceeds of this book go to charity. How can you not like this guy?
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Spree de Bookishness!
Jan 21 2005
By John Zxerce
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Like Hornby I end up buying more books than I read - a lot more. And every time I see those shelves of unread books I'm hit with two emotions simultaneously. First, I admire the condition and selection of my books and then I feel like a deadbeat parent who's long neglected one's children. I suppose joy and sorrow have never meshed so well in a unified whole.
And Hornby presents similar feelings not too mysterious regarding his lack of discipline in consuming his books. He writes, "I certainly 'intend' to read all of them, more or less. My 'intentions' are good. Anyway, it's my money. And I'll bet you do it, too."
Additionally, I like the fact that Hornby is a discerning reader who searches for the `mesmerizing books'. These are the ones Hornby finds worthy of the hunt - those that will make you "walk into a lamp-post" while reading them.
Hornby's wit and caustic humor make this an entertaining read for the bibliophile, or for anyone aspiring to own more books than days left to live.
And Hornby presents similar feelings not too mysterious regarding his lack of discipline in consuming his books. He writes, "I certainly 'intend' to read all of them, more or less. My 'intentions' are good. Anyway, it's my money. And I'll bet you do it, too."
Additionally, I like the fact that Hornby is a discerning reader who searches for the `mesmerizing books'. These are the ones Hornby finds worthy of the hunt - those that will make you "walk into a lamp-post" while reading them.
Hornby's wit and caustic humor make this an entertaining read for the bibliophile, or for anyone aspiring to own more books than days left to live.
›
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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