Books we like ... and books we're not too fussed about
Nick Hornby
Penguin 2003
In my sad Virgo anally retentive way I always write in the front of a book details of where I bought it and when. From this I gather that this one has been hanging around on my “to read” shelf for almost five years, since I acquired it during a wet and windy weekend in Llandudno in November 2003. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to get round to it. I’ve read just about everything else Nick Hornby has written and liked most of it, after all. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t recognise many of the 31 songs (and 14 albums) listed on the contents page. Daft of me of course, for two reasons: firstly, one should always be open to new stuff (that’s one of Hornby’s messages here) and, secondly, knowing little and caring less about football didn’t make me enjoy his first book Fever Pitch any the less. Anyway, I’ve got round to it now and I’m glad I have. The book does exactly what it says on the tin (well, almost): it gives Hornby’s personal reaction to 31 songs he likes. It’s an eclectic mix, including stuff ranging from Bob Dylan to Teenage Fanclub to the J Geils Band (and several stations in between), all discussed in his often imitated but never bettered straightforward, informal, discursive way. Perhaps his writing appeals to me partly because he’s my age (a bit older actually – hurrah) and shares some of my interests, but it’s his written style (apparently, doubtless deceptively, unforced), his finely tuned bullshit detector, and his self-deprecating honesty and humour that I really value most. I think I now prefer his non-fiction stuff like this to his more recent novels, which sometimes seem a bit over-constructed for my liking, in fact.
4th September 2008
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/index.html
See also: Juliet, Naked; The Complete Polysyllabic Spree; Slam
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