The Complete Polysyllabic spree

I purchased this book a few months ago and I find that he and I share the same literary likes and dislikes! Also, I love his writing style. Overall, I recommend it to anyone who is a bibliophile (like me) because it's a book about books.

I am attracted to books that discuss the author's reading and ideas about it and inevitably I get so far and wonder, why aren't I out there reading for myself instead of holding this person's hand? Not so with this, which is over far too soon. Hornby, riffing about his own reading, his life, his outlook, is holding the reader's hand. The title would suggest a word riot, which THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE is, but it is also the... Read Full Review

As I wrote in my review of "Songbook", I suppose I should admit up front that I'm one of those people who would buy the phone book if Hornby wrote it. Like many guys of my generation and ilk, I consider "High Fidelity" to be close to the perfect novel. That said, I'm starting to wonder if maybe Hornby might actually be a better writer of non-fiction than fiction. His debut, Fever Pitch explains being a diehard soccer fan with... Read Full Review

Nick Hornby's "The Polysyllabic Spree" is an entertaining collection of essays about why Hornby buys so many books, reads some of them, and fails to read or finish others. Hornby gives his "varnished" opinion about what he has read. Why? It is part of the creed of "The Believer," the publication for which he writes, that he is not allowed to be too snarky. Therefore, he cannot give his unvarnished opinion lest he be called... Read Full Review