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Dec 23, 2008

David rated it:

What did I learn from this book? That even Nick Hornby, an author I generally quite like, is capable of PHONING IT IN, in truly shameless fashion.

If, like me, you chose this book because you really enjoyed its predecessor, "The Polysyllabic Spree", prepare to be disappointed. If I didn't like Hornby so much, this would be a candidate for the "intellectual con artist at work" shelf. Though the real culprits might be the McSweeneys/Believer posse. Who apparently se More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2011

Kim rated it:

Hi!!!!!!! I’m back. Yep. Thought I might have given up on you, right? No way “We’re stuck together like paper to glue / Like a me to a you / Like honey to Pooh / Like the sky is to blue.” You complete me. I can’t quit you. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. Don’t forget I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. I’m very discreet but… I will haunt your dreams.

Get it? I will not be daunted by a horse head in the be More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2009

April rated it:

Nick Hornby has discovered YA literature, which is why this is my favorite of his "What I'm Reading" collections.

In addition to declaring that (some) YA lit is as good as--if not better than--"grown up" books, Hornby also makes fun of high-brow critics who think that the only books worth reading are those in which everybody dies. He admits to reading and enjoying lightweight fare that doesn't make him want to kill himself, even if it makes him a literary dunce.
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Mar 15, 2009

Kate added it

Shakespeare Wrote For Money wasn't quite as good as Housekeeping v. The Dirt which wasn't quite as good as The Polysyllabic Spree. All collections of Nick Hornby's "Stuff I'm Reading" columns from the Believer magazine, the later ones don't have the same energy as the earlier ones, so perhaps he made the right choice in giving up the column after five years. Nevertheless, I got a lot of pleasure out of all three of these books and I felt sad when I reached the end of Shakespeare Wrote More...

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Mar 21, 2009

Teresa rated it:

I read a column a night, which was perfect for the amount of reading time I have these days. I laughed both aloud and within, which was most appreciated.

A highlight of this collection is Hornby's discovery of YA lit for the very first time and he loves it, discussing those YA books that he calls 'modern classics.'

In one column he reviews movies instead of books (very entertaining) and in his final column he reviews some books related to movies. (Thought of you, Judy!) More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Chris rated it:

I think Hornby waited a year too long to stop writing these columns. Or is it more accurate and hilarious to say that the Polysyllabic Spree waited a year too long to fire him?

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2010

Benjamin rated it:

This is the third collection of Nick Hornby's book review column that was featured in Believer Magazine. This was mainly a fairly quick read since I have already read all the columns collected in this book. I am sad that the column is being discontinued but writing a monthly column like this could be time consuming for an author like Nick Hornby, especially when I would rather him be writing books instead of reading a ton and then telling us about them. Don't get me wrong, it was great reading More...

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Mar 14, 2009

Rick rated it:

This is the third and final collection of Hornby’s Believer columns on book reading. As in the second volume the jokes about the Polysylabbic Spree (the mob of intolerantly kind and priggish editorial police at the Believer) are too inside cute instead of clever, and at times Hornby’s glib self-deprecation comes across as practiced, as opposed to sincere. Still I gulped my way through this slim collection of essays despite telling myself that reading them in a rush would accentuate the book’s fa More...

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Dec 24, 2008

Greg rated it:

After reading this I feel a little sad that I'm just not that interested in reading other books of Nick Hornby. Yeah I liked High Fidelity, and How to be Good was ok, but generally when I see his books I just don't feel a need to read them. I feel disappointed because I like these essays so much and want to like the other books of his more (or maybe I would like them, but rather just feel a motivation to want to read them).

I don't necessarily agree with Nick Hornby, and my reading More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Patrick rated it:

Shakespeare Wrote for Money is the third installment of collections of Nick Hornby’s entertaining column, “What I’m Reading”, for The Believer magazine. Sadly, it is also his last; he has given up the column. I find the editorial policy of The Believer that won’t allow Hornby to talk about books he doesn’t like a bit off putting, but the concept of celebrating good books isn’t such a bad idea really. I have to say that I have been inspired to read dozens of great books by Hornby over the years a More...

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Jan 12, 2010

teresa rated it:

Hornby used to write a book column for The Believer. One of the constraints on his reviews was that he couldn't use it as a forum to bash a book or author. Hornby thus made his columns a list of what he bought and what he read. Usually they didn't involve a review of any book or any in-depth deconstruction of the book.

This is the third book of his collected columns and the weakest of the bunch--he definitely was running out of steam or had too many other projects going on when h More...

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Jun 18, 2009

Dan rated it:

Can't say that I pulled any books out of this collection of reviews that I wasn't going to read already. I was a little disappointed to see that he enjoyed Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao as much as he did. All throughout, though, I laughed plenty. This was my favorite passage, which is too bulky for my quotes page. It's in regards to his finding out that Warren Beatty wanted Truffaut to direct Bonnie & Clyde, and originally hoped it would star Bob Dylan and Shirley Maclaine:

If only liter

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Mar 26, 2009

Lobstergirl rated it:

The only thing you can conclude from this book and others like it (this is the third and last compilation of Hornby's bookreviewing columns from the Believer) is that writers are a lot less critical of other writers than us regular people are. Hornby finds most of the books he reads wondrous, brilliant, smashing, absorbing, astounding, beautiful, haunting, visceral, inspirational, or "superbly realized."

I suppose this is because writers know just how difficult churning out More...

18 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2009

Stephen rated it:

This came (from the McSweeney's Book Club) at a good time for me. I've been writing a lot of reviews lately, both here on Goodreads and elsewhere, and I've started to get a bit self-conscious about them. I got it into my head that it was best to be totally objective, to aim for apparent omniscience, to try to ignore my own reading experience in order to provide a more balanced view.

So it was great to read this book of columns, and find a very respectable literary figure talking about More...

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Sep 09, 2011

Kasey rated it:

Very sad that this is the last of Nick Hornby's collections of book review-essays... well, hopefully not the very last (maybe he'll put together another some day)--but he's stopped writing for The Believer, in which all of these essays were first published. I love Nick Hornby's fiction, too, but am so grateful for these nonfiction pieces about one of my favorite subjects (reading). His attitude toward books seems absolutely perfect to me: he believes reading should be Fun, first and foremost, More...

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Feb 24, 2010

Laala rated it:

“Anyway, hurrah for fiction! Down with facts! Facts are for the dull, and straight, and the old! You’ll never find out anything about the world through facts!” — Nick Hornby, Shakespeare Wrote For Money

This book that collects Hornby’s final articles for his Stuff I’ve Been Reading column in the The Believer. Like the first two, I really enjoyed it. The problem with reviewing it is my thoughts didn’t change, so here’s some of what I wrote in the review of the first book:

He More...

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Jun 12, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

This is the third and final collection of Nick Hornby's reading columns that were originally published in The Believer (the first two being The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping v. The Dirt.) If you're a book junkie, the format will certainly appeal to you. Each column begins with two lists, Books Bought and Books Read. Very often there is no overlap.

I remember liking The Polysyllabic Spree a lot. I liked Housekeeping v. The Dirt, but not quite as much as Spree. After the first More...

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Nov 19, 2009

Ed rated it:

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the first two collections of Nick Hornby's columns from "The Believer," I was a bit sad to see that the third volume would be the last. Though to be totally honest, I wasn't even aware "Shakespeare Wrote For Money" even existed until I stumbled onto it while picking up Hornby's latest novel "Juliet, Naked."

Anyhow, there is really nothing new here. If you enjoyed the first two essay s , it is more of the same though I More...

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Jan 16, 2009

Lilly rated it:

I devoured this in less than a day. I always have high expectations for Nick Hornby- sometimes he fulfills them (High Fidelity) and sometimes he doesn't (A Long Way Down). But he always writes with smart humor, and a good dose of sarcasm, and what's not to love about that?

This is the second book I've read that is a compilation of his columns from The Believer, a wonderful journally magazine put out of San Francisco by Dave Eggers and his ilk. In said column "Stuff I"ve B More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Alison rated it:

How you can tell I really like all three collections of Nick Hornby's columns about books from The Believer magazine: I bought all three books without reading them first. Usually I borrow books (from the library or from my mom) and then if I know I'm going to reread it, I'll buy it. But after I read the first volume, The Pollysyllabic Spree, I was hooked. I've found lots of books to enjoy through Hornby's reviews, but even when he was talking about books I'm unlikely to read, I couldn't get enou More...

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Jan 11, 2012

Ngaire rated it:

Another lovely set of essays written for the Believer. Nick Hornby makes me laugh so hard - he's such a silly man. The whole chapter about George Orwell and his inability to appreciate the changes within his own lifetime made me giggle so much - the bit about how a modern teenage boy is more likely to have sampled his sister's kidney than read the book of poems that Orwell loved as a boy. Ha!

And Nick Hornby also has a bit of a epiphany during this period too - he starts reading YA Li More...

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Dec 15, 2008

Joseph rated it:

I've liked Hornby's other two collections of Believer columns but this one has shown me that over the last two years Hornby and I have developed very different tastes in books. There were roughly two books that we had in common and many of the books that he read were not at all interesting to me. Oh well, the book only cost me three hours at Borders today and there were a couple of laugh-out-loud lines that caused me a little embarrasement - one in particular about the charm of Joel Osteen.
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Dec 12, 2008

Michael rated it:

Took a wee break from Bolano's compulsively-readable-though-simultaneously-deeply-unsettling magnum opus to breeze through this, Hornby's third and final collection of "What I've Been Reading" columns from The Believer. There is something diligently inspiring about Hornby's musings on literature of all kinds. His lack of pretension in what he chooses to read reminds us that what we read is often dictated by what pleases us, and not because something is supposed to be good for us.

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Jun 06, 2009

Caroline rated it:

Nick Hornby's "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from 'The Believer' magazine are sort of a trailblazer for the GoodReads approach to talking about books. I used to devour these religiously, but I've slacked off a bit, to the point that, when I picked up this collection, I was surprised to see it described as his last because I didn't realize he'd stopped writing the column!

Fortunately, this collection is available to enjoy. I devoured the whole thing pretty quickly, and More...

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Nov 30, 2008

Lauren rated it:

Hornby has done it again! Which I would have known months ago if I were a subscriber to The Believer, but I'm not. Instead I wait for his monthly columns to come out bundled together in book format, and I digest them all in one sitting like the rabid fan that I am. And this one came with a very special bonus - an intro written by Sarah Vowell! This only served to affirm that I do truly love her as well, despite her recent, remarkable achievement of boring me to tears with The Wordy Shipmates More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 21, 2009

Kyle rated it:

Another great journey through the bookshelves (with a side trip to the DVD player) of Nick Hornby. He seems a bit reluctant in this collection of articles to get on with much of his reading, and perhaps this is due to the end of his Polysyllabic mission being in sight. Nevertheless, plenty of great tips on everything from Young Adult to Sports to Cultural Studies. Really curious, as always to know more about the abandoned novels he is unable to write about, and have a good guess as to what th More...

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Nov 20, 2010

Lavecchiastrega rated it:

Shakespeare scriveva per soldi è la raccolta di articoli mensili apparsi su di una rivista inglese con consigli di lettura.
La raccolta abbraccia un lasso temporale tra agosto 2006 e settembre 2008. Hornby descrive i libri letti e quelli comprati nel mese, con la sua solita prosa ironica e ricca di rimandi al contesto in cui si colloca la rivista e la cultura britannica del periodo.
Per il lettore italiano ciò può risultare un limite, poichè certamente non è addentro ai problemi e ai battibecchi t More...

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Oct 05, 2009

Becky rated it:

This book is the third installment of a collection of Nick Hornby's essays chronicling the books he bought and read over the course of a few years. I really like Nick Hornby and I laughed out loud several times reading this book. Throughout the course of these essays he discovers the joys of young adult novels and read and review several young adult books, all of which I'm now excited to read. I liked to see the difference between what Nick Hornby bought and read and also seeing the phases he More...

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Dec 11, 2008

Jeff rated it:

Nick Hornby has such a wry, incisive wit and this collection is a wonderful follow-up and fitting conclusion to his "Books Bought v. Books Read" article from "The Believer."

This go-around, Hornby's rants include (but are not limited to) synth-pop, cricket, life in East Germany, the i-Pod's questionable random shuffle, and, of course, the goings-on of the apocryphal "Polysyllabic Spree." What I love most about Nick's articles from "The Believer" More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Carla Jean rated it:

My favorite passage was this:
"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 aside 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 an More...

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