num_pages: 272
description: Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby - the bestselling novelist's rich witty and inspiring reading diary'Read what you enjoy not what bores you' Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine (taking off where The Complete Polysyllabic Spree finished) he shows us how it's done.Or at least how he does it: whether plunging into a biography of Dickens whilst his children are destroying something in the room next door or devouring a whole series of children's books whilst on holiday. Hornby is the intelligent committed but sceptical reader we'd all like to be. Admiring Ian McEwen's On Chesil Beach he points out a surprising anachronism. Reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road he wonders why 'unflinching' is a term of praise among critics. And who but Nick Hornby could successfully juxtapose a discussion of a book on the Band with one on the Stasi?These accounts of one reader's experience of buying and reading and sometimes not reading books differ from all other reviews or critical appreciations - they take into account the role that books actually play in the lives of readers.This book which is classic Hornby confirms the novelist's status as one of the world's most exciting curators of culture. It will be loved by fans of About a Boy and High Fidelity as well as readers of Will Self Zadie Smith Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker.Nick Hornby has captivated readers and achieved widespread critical acclaim for his comic well-observed novels About a Boy High Fidelity How to be Good A Long Way Down (shortlisted for the Whitbread Award) Slam and Juliet Naked. His four additional works of non-fiction Fever Pitch 31 Songs (shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award) The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and Pray are also available from Penguin.
language: English
title: Stuff I've Been Reading
publisher: Viking