About book Shakespeare Scriveva Per Soldi: Diario Di Un Lettore (2008)
This is a collection of Hornby's rambling, funny book review articles for a magazine from 2006-8. Ahem:"The annoying thing about reading is that you can never get the job done. The other day I was in a bookstore flicking through a book called something like 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (and without naming names, you should be aware that the task set by the title is by definition impossible, because at least four hundred of the books suggested would kill you anyway), but reading begets reading-- that's sort of the point of it, surely?-- and anybody who never deviates from a set list of books is intellectually dead anyway." Hooray! So if you like this and things like it, and suggestions on other things to read (mainly published between 2006-8), maybe check this one out. 8/15/2013: A meta-review, I guess? A book review of (yet another) collection of Nick Hornby's book reviews? And (yet again) they are awesome. This is the third I've read--and as far as I know there's one more, which I'm saving--of Hornby's monthly articles about books and reading in The Believer; these are from 2007-2008. At the beginning of each article, Hornby lists his Books Bought and Books Read for the past month, and then proceeds to talk about them, about reading in general, and about his life (including his obsession with his favorite team, Arsenal) in whatever way he feels like at the time. His writing is so clever, yet so well-edited, so concise and restrained--he always hits the nail on the head, and I'm more often than not laughing out loud, making Mike listen to a great line, or thinking Yes! that's exactly how I feel as a reader! (My two favorite points in this volume: the period when he finds he can't finish anything, and worries that he might never read an entire book again. This noodgy phase passes, of course, but I so recognize that feeling! The other is when he decides not to read a book because he feels competitive with it. Yes, this makes no sense, and he freely admits it, laughing at himself--but it sounded so familiar!)Obviously, I love books about reading, and especially smart, funny, contemporary ones. I've read a few of the books he discusses (in this volume he discovers YA, which is hilarious), and I've added a few more to my To-Read List. I love Nick Hornby!
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I'm sorry this is the last collection of these columns. All were thoroughly enjoyable.
—zach
