Nick Hornby is flat out interesting all around, and he writes about my favorite topics, all of which I want to read and absorb. He is exceptional at relating what it means to be a fan of almost anything, for example, Fever Pitch (sports), Songbook (music), and Polysyllabic Spree (books), High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked (Music and Relationships), the list goes on and on. This is a short collection of articles Hornby wrote for Believer magazine over a period of 14 months, each of which begins with a list each of books Hornby bought and another list of books read during that particular month.

The Polysyllabic Spree accomplishes a few things beyond the obvious of adding to the reader's inevitably already-too-long list of must reads (there's no way a true reader or Hornby fan who picked up this book didn't already have a list, I sure do): he writes on particularly interesting books, and even adds excerpts to some of them, like a literary sample platter; moreover, it compares books to other cultural media and explains why and how literature beats movies and film almost every time. Hornby recounts some amusing anecdotes about his writing career and first glimpses of associated fame. Most importantly, the Spree offers great commentary on the compulsive allure of reading... no, of book purchasing (and then reading... well sometimes), and of the acceptable snobbishness associated with selectively accepting book recommendations, and literary criticism. Hornby is both passionate and very opinionated on the subject, and reveals his personal literary ethic throughout. He treats personal book recommendations with suspicion, hates Amazon reviewers, and seeks to avoid too familiar subject matter (such as autism (he has an autistic son)) and writing styles (just as he prefers others' cooking style to his own).

The book suggestions are fantastic, although there is an emphasis on obscure older British authors. Hornby abided by the Believer's editors' review rules, one of which was emphasizing only the positive in his selected books, so almost every book listed in the Spree comes recommended.

=The book's title comes from Hornby's hilarious send-up of the editorial staff, which he pictures 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 got a good laugh from those references.

I now have a whole lot of book picks that I wouldn't otherwise be aware of, and Hornby really made me want to read David Copperfield.

This was fun! Thank you to my friend Stephanie for putting this series on my radar. Originally written for the arts and literature magazine The Believer, Hornby wittily chronicles his monthly reading (this collection is from 2004). Each chapter begins with a listing of what he purchased versus what he actually read that month. My TBR has grown a bit! I really appreciate a writer who’s also a prolific reader, book buyer/hoarder, and thoughtful reviewer.

„Es soll hier also darum gehen, wie, wann und warum man liest, und darum, was man liest – um die Art und Weise, wie im Idealfall ein Buch zum nächsten und übernächsten führt, eine papierene Fährte aus Themen und Sinnzusammenhängen.“ (Zitat Seite 13, 14)

Thema und Inhalt
In diesem Buch spricht Nick Hornby nicht nur über die Bücher, die er während eines Jahres gekauft hat und jene, die er gelesen hat. Diese müssen nicht immer identisch sein, gelesen wurde nur ein Teil davon, was Buchmenschen aus eigener Erfahrung nur zu gut kennen. Das Schöne ist, Nick Hornby hat deswegen kein schlechtes Gewissen und damit bestätigt er auch uns. Bei ihm, wie bei uns, besteht jedoch die Absicht, alle Bücher auch zu lesen. „Aber mit jedem Jahr, das verstreicht, und mit jeder Neuanschaffung aus einer Laune heraus, drücken unsere Bibliotheken mehr und besser aus, wer wir sind, ob wir die Bücher lesen oder nicht.“ (Zitat Seite 138, 139)
Doch es geht hier um weit mehr, als nur um Bücher, es ist gleichzeitig eine sehr persönliche Autobiografie, Nick Hornby als Schriftsteller, als Leser und im Familienalltag als Vater von kleinen Kindern.

Umsetzung
Die vierzehn Kapitel sind monatliche Kolumnen, die Nick Hornby für das Magazin „The Believer“ geschrieben hat. Jedes Kapitel beginnt mit zwei nebeneinander angeordneten Listen: „Gekaufte Bücher“ und „Gelesene Bücher“. Im Text schreibt er dann zu jedem gelesenen Buch seine persönlichen Eindrücke, argumentiert, warum man dieses Buch unbedingt lesen sollte, oder aber, warum er sich über dieses oder jenes Buch geärgert hat. Bücher, deren Lektüre er abgebrochen hat, vermerkt er zusätzlich in der Spalte „Gelesene Bücher“. Oft zieht er auch Gedankenbrücken von der aktuellen Lektüre zu Büchern, die er schon früher gelesen hat und wo einen Zusammenhang sieht. Er selbst bemerkt, wie er selbst durch das Schreiben der Kolumnen seine Lektüre genauer auswählt und keine Romane mehr zu lesen beginnt, wo er schon vorher weiß, dass er sie nur unter verächtlichem Schnauben lesen wird. Seine Sprache ist unterhaltsam, interessant, humorvoll und man folgt mit großem Vergnügen seinen Gedanken, Eindrücken, Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen als Leser. Am Buchende findet sich eine Bibliographie der gelesenen Bücher.

Fazit
„All die Bücher, die wir besitzen, gelesen und ungelesen, sind der bestmögliche Ausdruck unseres ureigensten Selbst, den wir zur Verfügung haben.“ (Zitat Seite 138). Besser kann man ein Leben als Leser oder Leserin nicht beschreiben, als Nick Hornby dies tut, und vergnügt schreibe ich nun einige der von ihm empfohlenen Titel auf meine Bücher-Einkaufsliste.

Nick Hornby's writing is all over the place and it was certainly not an easy read. I'm not sure if that is simply because he was trying be colloquial...? I did get some good ideas for books to include on my own bookshelf hence the star.

On occasion I've been known to purchase more books than I can read. So what better thing to do than to purchase a book about a guy purchasing more books than he can read?

I have read or watched things by Nick Hornby before, which is why I purchased this one. Because he's very good. Funny. I've watched Fever Pitch, I've watched and read High Fidelity and About a Boy, and I've read How to Be Good. And anyway, this book was only $12.56.

It's a collection of articles he wrote for an American magazine called The Believer. He talks about a great many books, and I have read about three of them. That's the challenge, you see.

But I've now read this one, and I enjoyed it a lot.

A pleasurable read, and a good source of new titles to add to my to-read list...

Absolutely loved this book. I not only laughed out loud many times, I snickered many more, I have a list of books I want to check out (and some music), and I and I have even more admiration for Dickens. I also really enjoy meeting another reader who buys books for the love of them, not knowing exactly when he will read them (if ever).

Another of my favorite quotes: "Zaid's finest moment, however, comes in his second paragraph, when he says that 'the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.'" (referring to So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid) p 124

Hornby reads widely so the reader is exposed to so many books, old, new, literary, sport. Run, don't walk, to get a copy if you enjoy reading about reading (unless you require it be "serious".

Heartily recommended

Addendum: The quote below (p 91) where Hornby writes he read but never swore once, refers to his reading poetry, specifically What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland. He offered his "line" up as a cover blurb thinking it might be useful on a book of poetry.

Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree (2004) immediately both hit me with irony and made me think I wish more people write such books. It's a short collection of essays, simply listing the books he bought and the books he read, with discussion, including personal stuff that pops up and admitting how many of the bought books were not yet read. That's reality.

My only quibble is that Hornby is less funny than he appears to think he is. I may well be guilty of the same, but I've never published a book of personal essays. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and would buy another (he has several such books, it seems).

But the irony is that because of a receipt I stuck in the book, I know I bought it from The Last Word used bookstore here in Charlotte (not far from UNC Charlotte, great store). Anyway, I bought the book over two months ago and basically forgot about it. I found it cleaning up my desk at home and then finally read it.

From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2017/...

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about reading, books, and most of all, want to know Hornby better.

My first and only experience with Hornby’s writing was How to do Good. Instantly afterwards, I made it a goal to read more of his work.

Admittedly I was intimidated by the title of the book at first. “Polysyllabic” sounds complex; a spree of something polysyllabic is doubtfully a bundle of joy. But I needed a break from fiction after Nabokov’s Lolita and Polysyllabic Spree also appears to be one of the more light-heated read I have at hand (Yikes!).

It turns out to be a collection of essays/book reviews Hornby wrote for a column of the newspaper The Believer. Against my expectation, I’ve enjoyed the book a lot in spite of not quite catching half of what he discusses. You see, his reading experience and mine are completely incompatible hitherto. Besides, Hornby’s essays aren’t strictly about the books he read, but about the experience of reading, peppered cleverly with his opinions on Britain and its cultures (and I’m afraid I’m largely ignorant on this to get all of his jokes); contemporary authors and literature (again, my own ignorance is hindering); tidbits about his life as an author, a book lover, and an ordinary individual.

His voice is charming, witty and inviting. He got real sarcastic about the things he dislikes at times but never scornful or obtuse. I pictured us sitting comfortably across each other in a living room, both nursing our choice of drink, I myself gaping admirably at Hornby while he went on and on about books, reading, and just everything in between. In spite of seldom speaking, I never felt outspoken or neglected, I was having fun and learning new things, I giggled and chuckled through out his rant.

It’d interesting to pair up this book with Jo Walton’s What Makes this Book So Great?— which I’ve read right before this—just to see how similar AND polarizing people can be, in regard to reading and buying books. For instance, Walton is big on re-reading because the stories are predictable and likely more revealing than the first time. Hornby, on the other hand, claims to be “too conscious of his ignorance and his mortality” for re-reading. I’m with him on this case, but Walton is rather eloquent too. Furthermore, she voraciously devours genre books while he sticks to certain themes and genres—Dicken’s work for personal pleasure and depressive contemporary fiction for his column, for examples. On the other hand, they both have some habits that most readers do:

... owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.

In the end, I had a swell time with Hornby, I learnt something new about him and the culture of reading. Most of all, I adore him a lot more as both a writer and a person.

“Last month, I ended by saying that I was in need of some Dickensian nutrition, and maybe it’s because I’ve been sucking on the bones of pared-down writing for too long. Where would David Copperfield be if Dickens had gone to writing classes? Probably about seventy minor characters short, is where.”

What an entertaining and humorous collection of essays about reading, not reading and the acquisition of books. I really enjoyed the heck out of this slim volume, reading one or two essays per day. Any serious reader will recognize many of their own foibles and feel at home in these pages and he’s a fan of Dickens, what more could I want?

This is such an excellent journey through the struggles that the overwhelming majority of Goodreads members deal with on a regular basis. Hornby writes everything so clearly and precisely that I didn't need to understand all of the references to British literature (which I didn't). Ironically, I also took away some suggestions of books to buy.

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.