The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

by NickHornby (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $6.07

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $13.94

  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. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree collects Hornby's popular columns in a single volume with selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics under discussion.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $4.67

  'So this is supposed to be about the how, and when, and why, and what of reading - about the way that, when reading is going well, one books leads to another and to another, a paper trail of theme and meaning; and how, when it's going badly, when books don't stick or take, when your mood and the mood of the book are fighting like cats, you'd rather do anything but attempt the next paragraph, or reread the last one for the tenth time'. In his monthly accounts of what he's read - along with what he may one day read - Nick Hornby ably explores everything from the classic to the graphic novel, as well as poems, plays, and sports-related exposes. And, if he occasionally implores a biographer for brevity, or abandons a literary work in favor of an Arsenal soccer match, then all is not lost. His writing, full of all the joy and surprise and despair that books bring him, reveals why we still read, even when there's soccer on TV, a pram in the hall, and a good band playing at our local bar.