Who could have thought let alone reading books, reading an account of someone else reading books could be so fun, and Mr Hornby never disappoints with his rare wit..

Un libro che parla di libri. Lo stile di Nick Hornby è inconfondibile: brillante, ironico, divertente e intelligente. Con le sue parole fa venir voglia di mollare tutto e passare la vita a leggere (come se ci fosse bisogno di incoraggiamenti).
Purtroppo molti dei libri "recensiti" non sono tradotti qui in italia. Peccato, sembrano testi davvero interessanti.
Per colpa (o per merito, decidete voi) del signor Hornby la mia lista "da leggere" si è ulteriormente allungata.
Una lettura d'intrattenimento consigliata!

Questo libro è la raccolta di una rubrica che lo scrittore Nick Hornby ha scritto, mensilmente, dall'estate del 2003 fino al 2006 in una rivista. Questa rubrica doveva parlare e commentare le letture che, di mese in mese, l'autore faceva. Insomma, è quel libro che parla di libri.

Non ho ancora letto nulla di questo autore, e devo dire che mi è risultato molto simpatico e ironico. Scoprire le sue letture e leggere i suoi divertenti commenti mi hanno fatto scorrere velocemente le pagine e adesso non vedo l'ora di leggere qualche suo romanzo.

Consigliato a chi ama i consigli di lettura.

The Polysyllabic Spree - the ninety-nine young and oddly menacing hipsters who run the Believer - forced me to write this review. Just why I agreed, is better left unsaid. Suffice it to say - I didn't realise that a certain act was illegal in California. Not everything goes apparently.

Anyway, I digress, it seems the floatation of the magazine on Wall Street was not as successful as they had hoped. So they are hoping a good review of this book may induce people to buy a copy. Although as you can probably pick up a copy for a penny (plus £2.50 postage) on Amazon Marketplace, I don't hold out much hope of major profit taking. The other thing holding back sales is that it is written by Nick Hornby. Lets face it no one under forty has heard of him. So that's the youth demographic right out the window. There may be a market amongst Arsenal fans who believe Hornby is some kind of football (or soccer as you call it) pundit. I don't wish to stereotype Arsenal followers (or players for that matter) but I hardly see Didier Drogba reading this on the beach as I understand he prefers Sartre - Hornby is hardly in that league. More Blue Square Bet Premier if you ask me.

Eric Cantona said: I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery. Hornby (who incidentally comes from a dynasty of model railway manufacturers) certainly isn't delving into his own mystery with this series of essays for the Believer. In fact, there seems to be no mystery about Hornby at all. I have a signed copy of this book the Polysyllabic Spree sent me - Hornby's signature comprised an H with a squiggle attached. Definitely obfuscation. In fact Hornby probably has Violet (the old lady who writes his books) signing them for him. Her arthritis never entered his mind!

Just ignore this first part of this review - I just needed to vent. As the Believer have agreed to pay me in drachmas (not my chosen currency) I better get to the selling part. PLEASE buy this book not only will you be helping a struggling magazine, you will also be resurrecting the ailing career of Nick Hornby.

Don't read this book if your TBR shelf already takes up the whole wall. Because you will end up with even more books you want to read. Otherwise - entertaining and smart writing from Hornby. As always.

The funniest book I ever read about books I've never read.

I picked this up cheaply from a charity shop recently, having vague recollections of having read it a decade or so ago in a small park near the library from where I borrowed it. It was alas a disappointment and hence will be recycled back to a different charity shop.

This is a gathering-together of Hornby's columns of book reviews for what seems to be an odd kind of American literary magazine. In it, the author attempts to talk in more general terms about the experience of reading (as opposed to just reviewing the books he has read) in a similar manner to how he talks about the experience of listening to music and having important/favourite records in his similar book '31 Songs'. I just felt that this idea worked a lot less well when applied to books due to the lesser accessibility of these compare to songs (and it's a lot easier to see a reference to a song you don't know, listen to it, then read and 'get something' from what Hornby has said about it.. than it is about the books he speaks of). In addition, I found the set-up slightly contrived and the imposed rules about not bad-mouthing books he didn't enjoy all a bit tedious, as was the repeated quaint Englishness and name-dropping of his author friends.

For a relatively short (~240pp) book, there was a lot of it that I skimmed a little, as much of it seemed of little relevance to my interests and Hornby's efforts to engage me didn't have the required strength.

Taken from my book journal [Not traditional review format]

'The Complete Polysyllabic Spree' came as I become desperate for a hobby, something to fill my time. I was actually searching for an outside hobby that involved exercise, but all I could think of that I already enjoy doing is reading. It has already shown me the way to make my reading have more of an impact, more output from me than just input from the books. Also, as I worry about the lack of book lovers around me, it assures me that reading what I read isn’t important, just reading fullstop is what counts. The message of ‘If you don’t like what you’re reading, you aren’t enjoying it and should just stop’ hits home. Bullying my boyfriend to read what I like isn’t a good plan. But as it happens, I bought the one book he actually picked out as interesting (even though I think it’s pants), and he took on the train and read. This is certainly progress, and the coinciding of this gives me a link to 'The Polysyllabic Spree', and frankly a love of it, regardless of being only 22 pages in.

----------------------------------------

Still plugging away at CPS, which sounds like I’m not enjoying it which I am! It is sort of my Bible as it inspired me directly to write this book journal, and I thought I’d be reluctant to finish it in fear of moving on and out into the world on my own, but that’s not true actually. I just haven’t had the time to finish it, as beautifully easy-going as it is. But everytime I read it I get excited about my next book, and now I have so many on my list that it’ll be tricky to pick!

----------------------------------------

So I have finally finished this inspirational book, and am left to fend for myself in the big wide world of books. I’ve been influenced by it significantly, particularly in that I’ve picked up 'Anna Karenina' again (have read half of it before in dribs and drabs) and 'Catch 22' (started but gave up before). Despite these clearly not being my perfect books, because I’ve tried and failed to read them before, I’ve picked them up again. I suspect this is for the same reasons Hornby does, which is that for all his belief in certain books being perfect for certain people, and his wise words about giving up immediately on books that you know are not your cup of tea (Why torture yourself by crawling through a book that makes you cry with frustration when there WILL be a book that you would love instead out there?), he still makes choices based on what other people think, and how he likes to think of himself. 'Catch 22' is a quirky and famous book that I own (so don’t even have to pay money for it) and I feel like I SHOULD like it and should have read it too, so I’m giving it another go. If I don’t finish it, I won’t be shocked. But my current plan is to take it by surprise and charge full pelt through it before it has the chance to counter-attack with boredom. Wish me luck.

Una lettura leggera e godibile, che mi ha fatto scoprire perle edite ed inedite in Italia.

Nick Hornby ci porta con sè attraverso le sue letture: si tratta infatti di una raccolta di recensioni che ha pubblicato su una rivista inglese. Descrive con il solito stile allegro e scanzonato il suo piacere per la lettura, i libri che lo hanno fatto appassionare e quelli che ha abbandonato perchè non riusciva a farseli piacere, consiglia opere ed autori.

Questo libro non mi ha preso. Per carità, Nick Hornby è simpatico, ironico, intelligente, pungente, un amico quasi, ma i libri che recensisce sono libri inglesi o americani, a me sconosciuti -o, se qualcuno lo conosco, non l'ho letto- e le battute che l'autore fa nel corso dei commenti rimangono incomprensibili.
La mia vita da lettore è del tutto diversa da quella dell'autore.
La cosa che ci accomuna e che mi ha spinto a finire la lettura è il grande amore per i libri:
"I libri, ammettiamolo, sono meglio di qualunque altra cosa. Se organizzassimo un campionato di fantaboxe culturale, schierando sul ring i libri contro il meglio che qualunque altra forma d’arte abbia da offrire, sulla distanza di quindici riprese… be’, i libri vincerebbero praticamente sempre.” Parole sante, Nick!

At a time before youtube and booktube came along, Nick Hornby, proving, as always, the pioneer that he is reminds readers the joys and sorrows and struggles of being a reader. He puts into perspective questions still unanswered like judging others for their reading material of choice and whether reading has become pretentious, whilst presenting how it like working in a literaty judgement free safe space with an ever changing number of employees. All that while giving us simultaneously exceptional recommendations. I am definitely biased, as he is one of my favourite authors of all time, but his genious and passion of the craft is shining through once again.