The Polysyllabic Spree
Posted on March 22, 2005
It's comforting to meet or read about people who share your addiction, no matter how odd your drug of choice may be. Seeing this in print somehow legitimizes my expensive habit and makes me feel almost -- normal. The Polysyllabic Spree is a collection of Nick Hornby's monthly column "Stuff I've Been Reading" from The Believer magazine. More specifically,
"A hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read."
Each chapter starts of with a list of BOOKS BOUGHT and BOOKS READ, some appended with (unfinished) or simply listed as Unnamed Work of Nonfiction (abandoned), as to not break the Spree's (the magazine's editors) golden rule of providing only "acid-free literary criticism". I love how Hornby describes his reading and book buying habits. He writes in the July 2004 footnotes how he,
"bought so many books this month it's obscene, and I'm not owning up to them all: this is a selection. And to be honest, I've been economical with the truth for many months now finding books that I bought, didn't read, and didn't list."
That goes for both of us Nick. Only wish I was getting paid to write about them in my own column.
Leave a comment.
Mark,
it's Hornby, with an 'n'.
Cheers.
::posted by: Gary at March 23, 2005 09:57 AM
