false 4260 1 "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 six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on point And every now and again you'd get a shock, because that happens in sport, so Back to the Future III might land a lucky punch on Rabbit, Run; but I'm still backing literature 29 times out of 30." This book collects Hornby's popular columns in a single, artfully illustrated volume with selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics under discussion. 2961810 30 11 2004 The Polysyllabic Spree total:1986|5:395|4:801|3:622|2:133|1:35| 1986 7346 2953 259 5 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 23:12:03 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 22 01:49:49 -0700 2007
These are funny and smart and well-written essays: autobiographical and a...more...]]> 5 3 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 17:48:31 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 12:29:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Oct 16 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 12 06:48:32 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 06:51:27 -0700 2008
'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,...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 12 16:38:17 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 27 20:10:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 09:23:11 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 09:26:52 -0700 2009
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 ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 23:06:23 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 23:10:31 -0700 2007
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...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 19:43:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 20:31:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun May 24 17:51:20 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 17:53:06 -0700 2009
We've all come back from the bookstore with ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 08:51:51 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 08:51:32 -0700 2009 1
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 s...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Apr 13 05:10:35 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 05:10:35 -0700 2009
This is Hornby's account of books he read, books h...more...]]> 0 1 false false Sat Jun 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 10:14:02 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 21 14:54:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 00:23:41 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 00:27:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 true false Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 21:12:36 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 21:25:41 -0700 2009 In addition to making ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 11:31:36 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 19:14:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 08:41:19 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 13 07:23:28 -0800 2009
The Polysyllabic Spree was book #36, and I actually read two different copies of it - the...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jul 03 21:37:10 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 03 21:39:32 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Feb 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 15:01:02 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 09:15:30 -0700 2009 One of my favorite passages:



Never mind that, as regular readers of this column know, I have over the last few months bought several hundred books I haven't yet read. And never mind that, as it turned out, I found mysel...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Dec 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 09:41:43 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 10:48:29 -0800 2008
However, as a writer, the book did give me insight into writing by way of Nick Hornby's critical reading eye.

I enjoyed it. Not a brilliant master...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Aug 14 07:19:40 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 14 07:21:48 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Jan 06 15:49:18 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 15:50:10 -0800 2009 1 This was certainly different from what I normally read and what Hornby usually writes...more...]]>