This is the second collection of Hornby’s essays from the magazine The Believer on what he has been reading each month and the connections between what he is reading and his actual life (it follows The Polysyllabic Spree). In this collection, Hornby really hits his stride. Not only are many of the pieces laugh-aloud funny, but there are several pithy nuggets that you will immediately want to read out loud to whoever is sitting next to you. And you will find some interesting reading recommendations to boot.

I particularly admire Hornby’s advice to readers and would-be readers, as it reminds us all to only spend our time on books that are “worth reading,” but that phrase - “worth reading” - differs for all of us. For you, it may be Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past; for me, it may be a deliciously dark thriller like Gentlemen and Players; and for Hornby, it may be the Motley Crue biography, The Dirt. But what matters is that you are enjoying what you are reading, that the book is bringing something to the table. Because otherwise, reading will become a chore, like school, and then bam! We’ll lose another one to American Idol.

Oh yes, and Hornby also has advice for writers: stop writing about writers. Enough already! To which I can only say amen, unless you happen to be Michael Chabon.

http://readmorebooks.wordpress.com

http://rasml.org/?p=944