It is rare to find books that tell you about your reading habits. Readers are all guilty of buying books that will immediately find its permanent home on the shelves and no matter how many books we own, it will never be enough. However, as Nick Hornby said, our intentions are good.

I bought this book and I have been trying to finish it for years, but distractions (other books) always got the best of me and my reading list. However, I believe in trivial things like fate and I also believe that the books we come across with choose us and not the other way around. The books you read always caught you at the perfect time and I think this is true when I reached page 140 of this book.

The monthly column is hilarious and is at fault of elongating my inexhaustible list of to-read. Nick Hornby not only shared his readings but glimpses of his life. Some readers tend to put authors on a pedestal and Nick showed how plain and ordinary the life of a writer can be. We do not spend our waking lives writing in a cave like Edmund Spenser to create a masterpiece like "The Faerie Queen".

The column raises common readers' issues like choosing the bad books (subjective), snob publishers, great writers not getting enough credit and accolade, books vs other forms of art (I totally agree that books will win 99% of the time).

The excerpts are insightful, especially the last one. If you skip the excerpt from Anton Chekhov letters, I suggest that you grab your copy and read it.

Why four stars? Because there are some parts that I feel Nick Hornby is book shaming me for what I read and not reading (A common event to every reader's life). However, I take it as a challenge to elevate my game.

In the end, the saying holds truth, "too many books, too little time".

A book I received for Christmas. I enjoy reading about the books others read, plus I enjoy Nick Hornby. Spell check wanted in the worst way to change Hornby to horny. Thank goodness I caught that one, there are many I haven't. Lol! These are essays he wrote for The Beloved magazine, and each month starts with the books he acquired and those read. His reading is varied and his opinions often amusing.

He tells little tidbits about each book, taking us right along with his thoughts. In between he tells us a little about his life, his family and the polysyllabic spree, which is what he calls those in charge of the magazine. He particularly loves Dickens, in this book he reads David Copperfield, and even prints out the part where David tries to sell his jacket. Dickens apparently created over 1300 characters in his books. He also thinks highly of the works of Patrick Hamilton, whom I have yet to read. Other books and opinions will have to be read by yourselves.

The danger in a book such as this, are the number of books I have added to an already huge to read list. He does nicely provide an index at books end.

This is an extremely entertaining and funny compilation of Mr Hornby's musings on books and owning books. Lots of very interesting books and authors are discussed, a lot of which i have not heard of before. The legacy of this book is me purchasing all the sequel vols that followed and a HUGE list of books and authors to check out. :)

Have you too many books lying around and yet you still go out and buy more? This is the book for you! Hornby has devoted a whole magazine column to his failures at completing a reading list. His writing is funny and warm and eclectic. I will go out and buy all his books today and have them happily sit on a shelf until someone throws them out.

I loved this book even more the second time around! What a great collection of essays. As much as I love About a Boy, I think his essays for The Believer are his best work.

I love books about books and this one is such a gem. A collection of artcles in the Believer Magazine (have to check that one out), it follows Nick Hornby's "struggle" with the books he buys and the books he manages to read.
It is so funny, had me chuckling a lot, and the types of books I read rarely do that.
I enjoyed his matter of fact, funny book reviews, all entwined with bits and pieces from his own life and his own world view.

I can't imagine a book lover who won't love this collection.

The author offers a quote from Gabriel Zaid's So Many Books that sums it all:
"the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."
Now, that makes me feel much better.

By the time I got to page 40, I had emailed 2 friends to recommend this 140 page book; it’s a very quick read. Some of those early chapters turned out to be my favorites but I thought the whole book was brilliant.

These are funny and smart and well-written essays: autobiographical and about books. Wonderful concept: each chapter is an accounting of one month of the author’s book buying and book reading and starts with a list of books bought and books read and then goes on to wonderful commentary and tidbits about the books, authors, autobiographical information, etc. Very British.

My favorite quote in the book is on page 125: "I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal." I so agree! And I so enjoyed his love of reading & books, and he has very eclectic tastes, as do I.

I had heard of Nick Hornby but never knew what he’d written. When I got this book noticed that 3 of his books have been made into movies I’ve enjoyed: Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity.

Unfortunately (fortunately?), this book has given me yet more ideas for books to read. More the ones he read and wrote about than his other books.

Oh, and he loved one of my favorite books: How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer!

I borrowed this book from the library but it's worth owning, especially because the profits from this book’s sales go to 2 charities: 50% to TreeHouse in England, which is school for kids with autism (the author has a son who’s autistic) and 50% to 826nyc, a writing program for kids based on a very successful local program in San Francisco started by the author Dave Eggers.

Reading a book about the books someone else has read is disconcertingly meta for me. There were some funny bits, but I am someone who pathologically does not collect books, I had a hard time identifying. Plus, none of the book sounded particularly interesting, except for the book about cricket, which they do not have at my local library.

I hope he keeps publishing collections of his Believer articles, they are brilliant. He writes about the books he read each month but also about the books he couldn't read, the books he trudged through, and the experience of being a reader. If you enjoy reading books, check this one out. Every entry is also chock full of Hornby wit, self-deprecating humor, and intelligence.

This was my first Horby book. Mr. Horby is very funny and I laughed out loud many times. I also found myself rushing to my computer to write down the books he especially liked...so my book list has gotten longer. He talks about the compulsion to buy more and more books, some that may never get read...something I could identify with. And he also talks about abandoning books that he does NOT enjoy because life is too short. I only recently came to that conclusion myself. I will definitely read another Hornby book.

Can I just say that I love how Nick Hornby's mind works? This book consists of articles he published in the Believer Magazine, just Nick musing about books he has purchased and his thoughts about what he has read (no spoilers), with comments about life in general interspersed. First of all, I've noted some titles that I now am eager to read, but even if I don't ever read a single book mentioned, I got a ton of enjoyment just listening to his musings. I originally gave this 4 stars, but after thinking further, his analysis of Charles Dickens' genius bumps it up to 5. (Of course in every review I hover between star ratings).

This should be in the I-tried-but-quit category. These might have been interesting when they were columns, if it was a slow news day and you were bored but wanted to read the paper, but he didn't have enough insightful thoughts to make me feel like I had to know what he was reading and what he thought of it. Now if David Foster Wallace had written it, I would have been all over it, I'm sure.