Description
This is a full collection of Nick Hornby's 'Stuff I've Been Reading' essays, first published in the Believer magazine in the US, and now assembled in this bumper volume for the delectation and edification of book lovers everywhere.
Through twenty-eight monthly accounts of books bought and books read, Nick Hornby explores the how and when and why and what of reading. From classic midlife crisis ('OK, I should have read David Copperfield before, and therefore deserve to be punished ...') to the realization that his lovely, highbrow friends rarely recommend books that have him bumping into lamp-posts, Hornby does battle with the big literary biography (613 pages long 'Have mercy!'), pursues newly discovered writers to the outermost reaches of their oeuvres, instructs the young Flaubert to get a life, forgets every book he's ever read, and explains the theory behind literary family trees - the way great books give birth to one another.
A testament to the joy and surprise and despair that books bring, The Complete Polysyllabic Spree covers debuts, blockbusters, poems and comics, self-help ('how to stop smoking and stay stopped for good'), sports biographies and literary letters, classics and science (read through panicked tears). Hornby is the perfect guide to this cornucopia of books, engaging the reader with wonderful conversation pieces, hilarious one-liners, lists, ideas, admissions and autobiography. He introduces the magnificent concept of a Cultural Fantasy Boxing League. And includes bonus material - excerpts from works by Chekhov, Charles Dickens, Patrick Hamilton, and many more.
