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Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Stuff I've Been Reading #3)

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 1,158 ratings · 208 reviews

With an affectionate introduction by Sarah Vowell, this is the third and final collection of columns by celebrated novelist Nick Hornby from The Believer magazine. Hornby's monthly reading diary is unlike any arts column in any other publication; it discusses cultural artifacts the way they actually exist in people's lives. Hornby is a voracious and unapologetic reader, an...more

Paperback, 132 pages

Published December 1st 2008 by McSweeney's (first published 2008)

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Dec 23, 2008 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: disappointing, read-in-2008

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 see no problem in subtitling this...more 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 see no problem in subtitling this volume "two years of reading begat by more reading, presented in easily digestible, utterly hysterical monthly installments". Naively, one might expect somewhere around two dozen such installments. What they fail to mention is that there are actually only 15, two of which have nothing to do with books. It appears that Hornby's relationship with his employers at "The Believer" was in more or less consistent decline over the period in question, so much so that he was suspended on several occasions, resulting in one 5-month hiatus, and several briefer one-month suspensions (these resulted in combined March/April type installments, the standard 7 pages long).

The material that is included is interesting enough, though there is a much higher proportion of general 'the dog ate my homework' kind of waffling, with correspondingly less space devoted to Hornby's thoughts and insights about books he actually read. Personally, I didn't find the seven-page justification of why he read no books at all during the month of the World Cup particularly interesting; just as his views on The Simpsons Movie left me cold. It would have been interesting to hear the gory details of his rift with "The Believer", but these are not forthcoming, though he does mutter obliquely about ongoing censorship and repeated exhortations to be nicer about the books he discusses. There are occasional titillating references to the byzantine hierarchy of relationships within the McSweeneys fortress, and of being forbidden to write about certain books based on who was currently boffing whom, but the juicy details are disappointingly absent.

The time gaps and his obviously waning interest in the project take their toll. There is very little continuity, and most of the books featured in the "books bought" columns are never discussed at all.

With fewer than 100 pages of material actually devoted to books, the $14 price tag and misleading representation of the book's content seem like an impudence on McSweeneys' part. Hornby surely deserves some of the blame as well.

A real disappointment.(less)

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Dec 20, 2011 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-authors, essays, it-was-density, mmxi

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 bed… by a boiled bunny… by...more

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Dec 23, 2009 April rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, nerd, 2009

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.

Even if this whole book had been a...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Kate added it

Shelves: literary-criticism, reading

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 For Money...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

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!)

In his final column, he ga...more

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Dec 22, 2008 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2008

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?

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Jul 22, 2010 Benjamin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-read, reviews, mcsweeneys, nonfiction, books

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 h...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, essays

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 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, books-about-books

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 tastes are qu...more

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May 03, 2013 Peebee rated it 5 of 5 stars

So I may have mentioned my Nick Hornby crush, so learning in this edition of his not-quite-book-reviews from The Believer that he finally married his baby mama was sad (actually I already knew that, but it did come up in this book). But I will still attempt to read everything he writes (except Fever Pitch, which isn't about baseball like it is in that cute movie starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore). So much so that I interrupted writing this review to go subscribe to The Believer so I don't...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: criticism, essays

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 3 of 5 stars

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 he was writing th...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

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 literat

...more

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Mar 26, 2009 Lobstergirl rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like lists of books

Shelves: books-on-books

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 novels is, whereas rea...more 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 novels is, whereas readers are merely consumers who haven't gone through the process. If we'd birthed some novels ourselves, we'd probably be a lot more sympathetic and forgiving. I hated Ken Kalfus's A Disorder Peculiar to the Country; Hornby decided it was "wonderful," a "sophisticated piece of adult entertainment that took "narrative risks." I found Ian McEwen's Saturday painfully, egregiously pretentious and had to force myself to the end as if swimming through a sea of mud and shit; Hornby liked it (all critics seem to be in agreement that McEwen is a brilliant writer) but found it "uneven." Both of us loved The Road.

So I was thrilled when Hornby actually found a novel that he loathed - so much so that he coyly, annoyingly refused to name it. (He provides a quote, so by googling you are able to figure out it's Light Years by James Salter.) Hornby listens to an excerpt from the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya's "A Russian Diary" on the radio one morning and it makes him think of Light Years. "A perfect day begins in death, in the semblance of death, in deep surrender," wrote Salter. Really? questions Hornby, who finds this deliberately imprecise and obfuscatory. Is that the same "death" of Politkovskaya's diaries? He wonders "whether the complication of language is in inverse proportion to the size of the subject under discussion," given that she is writing about the agonies of Russian lawlessness and despotism, and Salter is writing about rich people languidly musing about wine and Sartre.(less)

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Jan 09, 2009 Stephen Theaker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mcsweeneys-book-club

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 books in ju...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Kasey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, books-about-books, nonfiction

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, an...more

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Feb 24, 2010 Laala Alghata rated it 3 of 5 stars

“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 wrote about what books...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Suzanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011, nonfiction

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 couple essays i...more 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 couple essays in Shakespeare Wrote for Money, I thought this might get a rating of "just okay," but by the end, it crept up to at least match the enjoyment level of the second book. I felt like he was meandering a bit, talking too much about the World Cup and what he was doing instead of reading. That's his prerogative, I suppose, and Hornby is pretty entertaining in that mode, as well, but I remember coming out of the first two collections with a much expanded To Read list. I wasn't getting quite as much out of this installment.

Things got better about halfway through when Hornby, after writing a YA book himself, connected with other YA authors and essentially discovered the YA genre, and how great some of those books are. He says:

"They've been very disorienting, these last few weeks. I see now that dismissing YA books because you're not a young adult is a little bit like refusing to watch thrillers on the grounds that you're not a policeman or a dangerous criminal, and as a consequence, I've discovered a previously ignored room at the back of the bookstore that's filled with masterpieces I've never heard of, the YA equivalents of The Maltese Falcon and Strangers on a Train. Weirdly, then, reading YA stuff now is a little like being a young adult way back then: Is this Vonnegut guy any good? What about Albert Camus? The world suddenly seems a larger place."

It was fun to see him go on and pick up some of my favorite YA books (like Louis Sachar's Holes).

Even though it wasn't the strongest bunch of essays, I still loved the format and ended up adding several books to my reading list. I wish Hornby were still producing these articles in some format, blog or otherwise. I wonder if we could somehow convince him to join Goodreads!(less)

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Nov 19, 2009 Ed rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: reading geeks

Shelves: 4-stars, 2009, non-fiction, read-in-paperback, books-about-books

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 will agree with some of my fellow reviewers...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Lilly G rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 Been Reading", he lists wh...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've always said that I prefer Hornby's non-fiction to his fiction. He himself has the self-awareness, maturity and wry self-criticism that his characters always lack. Reading the collection of his essays written for the Believer Literary magazine about the books that he bought and read each month (where there was often little overlap between the books that were bought and read) gives one the distinct pleasure of inhabiting his world. His messy home with non-perfect children; his interests in ev...more I've always said that I prefer Hornby's non-fiction to his fiction. He himself has the self-awareness, maturity and wry self-criticism that his characters always lack. Reading the collection of his essays written for the Believer Literary magazine about the books that he bought and read each month (where there was often little overlap between the books that were bought and read) gives one the distinct pleasure of inhabiting his world. His messy home with non-perfect children; his interests in everything from North Korea to the entertainment world; the gentle and humanizing mockery he uses to defuse what could be the self-importance of the task of writing book reviews for a literary magazine that, as its philosophy, refuses to print negative reviews; the genuine enjoyment he gets out of his reading life. You don't always understand and agree with this choices, nor did I always agree with his impressions, but I always enjoyed the way Hornby interacted with the books, the way what he was reading was an offshoot of his life or how when one of the books integrated itself in the choices he made. In my reviews and in other's reviews, I'm often less interested in the summary of the book itself - I can get that off the back of the book or on amazon - instead, I'm more interested in what, in me, recognized or didn't recognized something in the characters or story; in the reaction that the book created in me. Hornby seems to have the same reaction to literature. It is true that sometimes you could see his fatigue with the project and the articles were more synopsis over which he tried to put a theme. All in all, these were the literary equivalent of a warm blanket, a couch, a cup of tea (or wine or scotch) and a comforting night in.

[Reviewers Note: I am using the same review for all four books because there is nothing to distinguish the volumes other than their dates and the number of review which the editors decided to include. I will say that the first and last were my favorites if only because I found more universal truth nuggets and those copies had more underlines and he read more books that I had also read.]
(less)

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Sep 11, 2010 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars

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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Mar 07, 2013 Erin Boyington rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-on-books, essays, humor, my-library-had-it

Hornby is clearly running out of steam, but that doesn't prevent the last collection of his "Stuff I've Read" essays from being enjoyable. He discovers the joys of YA fiction (and reads a few of my favorites - Nick Hornby reading genre novels!), gets distracted by football, and talks a little more about politics than I care for, and makes it all engaging enough to be worthwhile. As ever, he continues to add titles to my to-read list!

The "September 2006" essay was one I had read in another collec...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Ngaire rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-loved, about-reading

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 Lit, and reali...more

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Dec 15, 2008 Joseph rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who are out of books to read

Recommended to Joseph by: McSwny's Book of the Month Club

Shelves: nonfict

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.

I do...more

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May 08, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was in a bookstore the other day hunting for something to read on writing when I got distracted by the books on reading. I picked this one up, knowing nothing about Nick Hornby beyond his connection to About a Boy. My impressions in no particular order:
1-this is the perfect just before bed book. It is a collections of Hornby's columns from the Believer so every chapter is self contained. All these years I should have been reading essays or columns just before bed rather than getting dragged in...more I was in a bookstore the other day hunting for something to read on writing when I got distracted by the books on reading. I picked this one up, knowing nothing about Nick Hornby beyond his connection to About a Boy. My impressions in no particular order:
1-this is the perfect just before bed book. It is a collections of Hornby's columns from the Believer so every chapter is self contained. All these years I should have been reading essays or columns just before bed rather than getting dragged into novels that wouldn't let me go to sleep.
2-this book is laugh out loud funny.
3-Hornby loves words. You would think that would be a prerequisite for writing about reading but I have read some writing about reading and books produced by people for whom words seemed like drudgery. I won't name names - that would be against the spirit of this book. The few times he went negative on a book (once? twice?) he left the offender anonymous.
4-one night I happened to read this after having watched an old episode of Doctor Who and I can report that the book is all the more fun when the voice of David Tennant starts narrating it in your head.
5-I love the idea of keeping a monthly log of books I bought and books I read. I'm also just a bit scared of the idea. Especially the books I bought list. I'm not certain I'm prepared for the self-revelation that might come from seeing that laid out in black and white. Essentially I think they would comprise a summary of what I think I should be but am failing at being right now. And the books purchased list would always be far longer than the books read list. Speaking of, I think I already had several books on writing that I just need to liberate from the unread section of my bookshelves.
6-I need to check out the Believer magazine now. According to its website it was nearly named the Optimist. If all the writing is nearly as smart and upbeat as Hornby's then I may have to become a subscriber. I'm looking for more sincerity and less sarcasm in my life.
And with that, I'll just add one of the many quotable lines from this book:
"...the literary world has a tendency to believe that the least consoling worldview is the Truth. (How many times have you read someone describe a novel as "unflinching," in approving terms? What's wrong with a little flinch every once in a while?)"(less)

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Dec 12, 2008 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: craft_and_criticism, inspirational-hoohah, nonfiction-reference

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.

Plus, he's damn...more

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Jun 06, 2009 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: prose, nonfiction

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 took a few notes on book...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

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. Th...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Owen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've read all three of these, and this is certainly the weakest. Perhaps that is why he put his column on hold. I can report that he did publish further columns in The Believer, as the issue I picked up this summer had one.
The first volume had the novelty of setting out the conditions set by the Polysyllabic Spree and the second had some nice excepts to go with the articles. The third has some variations; a DVD column and a discovery of young adult fiction. Too often, though, you just get nice...more

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About Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, Slam, How to Be Good, High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, and The Polysyllabic Spree, as well as the editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is a recipient of the American Acade...more

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Quotes from Shakespeare Wrote for ...

“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.” — 5 people liked it

“İki haftamı ülkenizi dolaşarak geçirdim -ülkeniz, çılgın zamanlar mıntıkası ve televizyonda sürekli bir biçimde ereksiyon sorununu tedavi eden ilaçların reklamının yapıldığı o ülkeyse eğer- bu dergi için bilgi toplamakla görevlendirilmiş olarak: kırk yedi edebiyatsever, sinir bozucu derecede sakin olmakla beraber yüzü gülmeyen genç adam ve kadından oluşan, her ay bu köşedeki tüm iyi esprileri ayıklayan Hece Cümbüşü, artık Amerikan okuma alışkanlıklarından bihaber olduğuma karar verdi ve beni havaalanı kitapçılarına doğru (itiraf etmeliyim ki faydalı) bir geziye gönderdi. Bu sayede, biliyorum ki, en sevdiğiniz yazarınız Cormac McCarthy değil, hatta David Foster Wallace bile değil, Joel Osteen diye bir adam ki kendisi, hakkında bildiğim kadarıyla Cümbüş üyesi olabilir çünkü kusursuz dişlere ve kurtarıcımız İsa’nın rehberliğinde insanlığın mükemmelliğe ulaşabileceğine dair bir inanca sahip. Televizyonu her açışımda Osteen ekrandaydı -Allah şu yetişkinlere yönelik, seyrettiğin-kadar-öde kanallarından razı olsun!- ve kitabı Become a Better You (Daha İyi Bir Sen Ol) her yerdeydi. Sanırım, şimdi bu kitabı okumak zorunda kalacağım, sırf sizin ne düşündüğünüzü öğrenmek için. Gerçek bir hikaye: Texas Houston’da George Bush Havaalanı’nda, otuzlarında çekici bir kadın gördüm bu kitabı satın alırken ve ilginç olan şuydu ki kadın ağlıyordu bu işi yaparken. Aceleyle içeri girdi gözlerinden yaşlar akarak ve kendi kendine söylenerek, doğruca ciltli, çok satan, kurgusal olmayan kitapların sergilendiği bölüme yöneldi. Tahmininiz benimki kadar başarılı. Neredeyse tamamen eminim ki, suçlanması gereken kişi duyarsız bir herifin teki (kadının D15 ile D17 kapıları arasında bir yerde terk edildiğini tahmin ediyorum), ve aslına bakılırsa duyarsız Amerikalı erkekler, Hıristiyanlığın A.B.D.’de popüler olmasının sorumlusudur. İlginçtir ki, İngiltere’de erkekler zerre kadar duyarsız değildir ve sonuç olarak biz de neredeyse toptan allahsız bir milletiz ve Joel Osteen hiçbir zaman televizyonlarımıza çıkmıyor.” — 2 people liked it

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title link	preview: Shakespeare Wrote for Money
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4457297-shakespeare-wrote-for-money?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327725609l/4457297.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4457297-shakespeare-wrote-for-money?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby[/url]

Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Stuff I've Been Reading #3)

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