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Apr 07, 2011

Kim rated it:

So, I have this Dunkin Donuts receipt that I was using for a place-mark for this book. It’s from March 14th and it’s for 3 iced coffees… and now it’s torn and there’s a gaping hole right over the total, it looks like it got wet at some point. There are numbers written all over it, some circled, some underlined, some with exclamation points. There’s something sticky on the edge. I was number 750.

I sort of feel like that right now. It did a really good job holding my spot (twss) More...

10 comments like (20 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2011

JSou rated it:

How is it that I've never read any Nick Hornby before? I feel like I've been missing out, and now want to thrust this book at everyone I know and [to steal a quote from the book itself] declare, "This is me!

I always thought Hornby would be too dick-lit for my tastes; I did see the film versions of High Fidelity and About a Boy, but even those were just okay for me. When I saw Kim was reading this, and realized it was a book about books, (those are my weakness), I thought I'd More...

12 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lauren rated it:

This is for the true bibliophile - for those I-can't-stop-buying-new-books-even-though-I-have-piles-unread-at-home types (a group to which I happily claim membership). Nick Hornby spent a little over a year analyzing his reading habits - what he bought, what he started and couldn't finish, what he loved - and each month printed an article in the Believer magazine with his musings. I was hesitant at first to read the collected articles because I though I'd have to have Nick Hornby's taste in bo More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 18, 2011

Kathy rated it:

Tuesday night found me at a Shell station on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. I was filling up my tank before heading back to my hotel to curl up in a warm bed and crash. As I shivered in my too light for the 52° weather dress and sandals (it had been 30 degrees warmer when I started the day in Montgomery, Al), I yawned to remind myself of how completely beat I was and then immediately locked my keys in the car.

As I sank onto a gas station bench to wait for AAA (who were de More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2010

Núria rated it:

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree es la recopilación de una columna de Nick Hornby que aparece cada mes en la revista Believer y en la que comenta los libros que ha leído en el mes pasado. Es un estilo parecido al de '31 canciones', mezcla de reseña/crítica y relato autobiográfico. Y no importa si no has leído los libros de los que habla, porque más que hacer una crítica ortodoxa de un puñado de libros, lo que hace es hablar de su experiencia como lector y de sus hábitos de lectura, de la satisfac More...

27 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2007

Lisa rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2011

Anthony rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2008

Diana rated it:

A collection of Hornby's columns from the Believer magazine. He starts with a plea for eliminating dullness in books:

'It is set in stone, apparently: books must be hard work, otherwise they're a waste of time. And so we grind our way through serious, and sometimes seriously dull, novels, or enormous biographies of political figures, and every time we do so, books come to seem a little more like a duty, and Pop Idol starts to look a little more attractive.'

And then:
More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

This is a compendium of a year's worth of Hornby's columns about books bought and/or read in The Believer magazine. The tone is colloquial like whoa, a bit skittish. Hornby, who's penned About A Boy and A Long Way Down, among other novels, is (unlike much of what he attempts to read) high readable himself. This little jam of a book flies over 140 pages.

Yes, it is fun to commiserate with a for-real writer who laments things like being given book recommendation (or, worse, being gifted More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 20, 2010

Lord rated it:

I read this book in one sitting. I'm a sucker for reading lists and talk about books in general. Nick Hornby writes in a wonderfully chatty, witty manner that makes this journal of his reading experiences hard to put down. This even made me consider reading David Copperfield and re-think the novel Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson (you'll be shocked to hear that one Nate!). My only small criticism is the magazine The Believer...I've long been skeptical of magazines like The Believer and McSweeney More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2009

Jasmine rated it:

This book has convinced me I have to read How to Breathe Underwater, Meat is Murder, We're in Trouble, and True Notebook.

Hornby is interesting and fun he makes fun of the believe staff and does his best to not make fun of books, he fails miserably. I'll be off buying the next two volumes while you are all out buying this one.

It reminds me of Umberto Eco when he talks about how important it is to own books that you don't read and how stupid people are who ask if you have read

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2007

Chelsea rated it:

Oh, Nick Hornsby. You are a clever, clever man. Now I'm going to have to suck it up and read some of your novels.

He talks about books, and how he keeps buying books, but not necessarily reading them. And then he decides that a person's collection of books - the ones they bought rather than the ones they've read - is the best way to define them. And then I considered proposing.

I think I would have given it a five if I had read more of the books he talked about. Or hea More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2009

Bob rated it:

Reread this last night (in about an hour - it's slight) and almost stopped on page 25, agreeing with his statement "I don't reread books very often; I'm too conscious of both my ignorance and my mortality" but decided to carry on and the paragraph itself ended on the Bayardian conundrum "...when I tried to recall anything about [ Frank Conroy's Stop-Time :] other than its excellence, I failed...And I realized that...this this is true of just about every book...I haven't even read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Avery rated it:

Se existe algo que qualquer escriba-genial-ignorado-do-grande-público gostaria de escrever, é um livro sobre livros. Membro postiço do libelo de Nick Hornby, Frenesi... apresenta obras interessantes para apreciadores da literatura, sem floreios e meneios.

No livro foram reunidas 28 colunas que Hornby produziu para a revista The Believer, publicação dirigida por sinistro grupo de jovens de roupão branco fanáticos de direita. Entre os mimos literários estão Dickens, C. S. Lewis e coisa More...

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Dec 21, 2011

Roberta rated it:

Nick Hornby, autore di svariati romanzi, ci propone una raccolta di saggi originariamente pubblicati mensilmente sulla rivista inglese The Believer. Un lettore può scegliere se leggere per migliorarsi o leggere per piacere: ovviamente la distinzione fra le due categorie è abbastanza grossolana, ma Hornby ritiene che la seconda opzione sia infinitamente più divertente. E così è: a questo dobbiamo le entusiastiche recensioni di romanzi quali La fortezza della solitudine, Pompei o David Copperfield More...

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Dec 17, 2011

Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it:

Nick Hornby. Books about books. 'Nuff said right?

S'okay, this is a collection of the monthly columns that Mr. Hornby wrote for the Believer magazine. There are actually three books to the collection. This is the first in the collection (I also have the last, just need to get my hands on the middle!)

The thing that stood out the most while reading PolySpree is how enjoyable his writing is. I've read some of his fiction and have enjoyed it but have to admit was a wee bit weary r More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Steve rated it:

Nick Hornby has always been an interesting figure to me, at a remote intersection between the laddish and the literary. His defining affections are football (the English kind), rock music, and pub culture. At the same time, he reads lots of books – and some of them are serious. Maybe such a subspecies is less rare in England, but where I’m from they’re scarce. Of course, as a writer it’s not so surprising that he’s a reader, too. It’s the kind of books he reads, though, and his criterion fo More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Patrick rated it:

A while back I read this review of Nick Hornby’s collection of columns about reading called The Polysyllabic Spree. I put it in my notebook to keep an eye out for it so when I saw it the other day at Kinokuniya and picked it up. Anyway, I really enjoyed Hornby’s previous book of essays about music, Songbook. He writes from the point of view of a fan more than a critic, although he will point out weaknesses and elaborate on why he likes what he likes. But there’s a sort of enthusiasm that permeat More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Laurie added it

It is great praise of Nick Hornby to say that I loved this book even though he and I do not have many of the same tastes in books. The thing that makes Hornby compulsively readable is his voice, which is detached and intense by turns, but always entertaining. In the same way, I enjoyed "Fever Pitch" without following soccer very closely. My enjoyment of the book is perhaps more amazing if I reveal that I try not to accumulate books, except those that I use for teaching. Where I liv More...

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Jul 08, 2011

Melora rated it:

An impulse purchase after seeing a quotation from it somewhere, probably Facebook,and I really enjoyed it! Short essays about books and reading. I'd hardly heard of any of the books he talked about, and mostly they weren't the sort of books I like (I did add one of his recommendations, The Invisible Woman, by Claire Tomalin, to my list), but his reviews were entertaining and his writing about his reading and family life were very funny! Here are some favorite passages, which give an idea of h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Parksy rated it:

Interesting thoughts on books and reading.

____________

Book Description
"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else," writes Nick Hornby in his "Stuff I've Been Reading" column in The Believer. "If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Emma rated it:

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 More...

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Jun 28, 2010

Carmen rated it:

This is a compilation of Hornby's book columns from The Believer, most of which are almost love letters about reading and the joys of literature. Hornby also has a book-buying habit that I can identify with, so that's a plus.

Here's one of my favorite passages, when he explains his experiences reading two acclaimed books; one is a British futuristic novel called How I Live Now, and the other is a 1907 memoir called Father and Son. Here is how he felt about both of them:
"Fathe More...

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May 24, 2009

Phil rated it:

This book is a capital idea made even more fun by it's honesty and accessibility. This is the first of three collections of essays Hornby wrote for 'The Believer' magazine where he chronicles what he plans to read and actually reads each month.

We've all come back from the bookstore with a tome that we are eager to consume...yet it still sits on our coffee table three months later. Part of the charm is the knowledge that avid readers ARE similar, and that if a professional author does More...

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Feb 24, 2010

Laala rated it:

“Being a reader is sort of like being president, except reading involves fewer state dinners, usually. You have this agenda you want to get through, but you get distracted by life events, eg. books arriving in the mail/World War III, and you are temporarily deflected from your chosen path.” — Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

It hasn’t been a secret that I’ve really enjoyed this book. I started it late last night, so I finished it in a day — a day that included sitting an exam, watc More...

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Jan 12, 2010

Infinite Playlist rated it:

Dieses Buch ist eigentlich nur eine Sammlung von Kolumnen, die Mister Hornby für die Zeitung Believer verfasst hat. Als ich mich damit angefreundet hatte (so Aneinanderreihungen von Kolumnen, die man sonst nur ein mal im Monat liest, finde ich ja irgendwie blöd), war ich eigentlich auch schon gut im Lesen drin.
Nick Hornby hat jeden Monat sein Leseverhalten dokumentiert und kommentiert. Zu Beginn jeder Kolumne listet er seine gekauften und tatsächlich gelesenen Bücher auf. All das könnte si More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2009

Jen rated it:

I used to pick up The Believer almost every month, and primarily to read Hornby's column. And here they are bundled in a nice little book.

His column in The Believer is a monthly struggle with the books that he's purchased and the books that he's read. And just generally his overall struggle with reading.

I love that he's completley honest (we think) about his reading. He fully admits how long it takes him to read Dickens and that there are some quote unquote classic More...

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Apr 13, 2009

Libby rated it:

A disclaimer: I adore Nick Hornby, especially when he's writing about himself such as in 31 Songs, Fever Pitch etc. He has such as easy, conversational manner of writing and a (sometimes self-deprecating) wit that would be hard to match.

This is Hornby's account of books he read, books he purchased and other snippets of his life over a period of 14 months, originally published as a monthly column in The Believer magazine. From Dickens to a biography of a football manager, Hornby's ta More...

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Jul 06, 2011

Aarthi rated it:

I didn't know what to expect because I'd seen the movie "About a Boy" quite a while ago and it definitely felt like a chick flick. So, I didn't really care for any books by the author. I saw the title of this book and I was intrigued. "The Polysyllabic Spree: A Hilarious and True Account of One Man’s Struggle with the Monthly Tide of the Books He’s Bought and the Books He’s Been Meaning to Read". This book called out to me because it sounded like my life except I've been borr More...

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Apr 03, 2011

Joseph rated it:

A collection of Hornby's essays on books for "The Believer." Funny, insightful, compulsively readable, and a great place to find ideas if you've just finished a book and can't remember what you wanted to read next. Also! Very comforting for those of us who sometimes feel guilty about the fact that some months we read eight books and some months only one -- it turns out the pros have the same problem. Through this book I've discovered Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, Julie Orringer's More...

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