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The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

By Nick Hornby

(51)

| eBook | 9780141902739

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Book Description

In his monthly accounts of what he's read along with what he may one day read Nick Hornby brilliantly explores everything from the classic to the graphic novel, as well as poems, plays, sports books and other kinds of non-fiction. If he occasionally implores a biographer for brevity, or abandons aContinue

Critics

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The Complete Polysyllabic Spree: The Diary of an Occasionally Exasperated But Ever Hopeful Reader by Nick Hornby 288pp, Viking, £16.99 The Complete Polysyllabic Spree collects together Nick Hornby's "Stuff I've Been Reading" column from the American ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

A hoot and a treasure

This is a wonderful book — lucid, funny, sharp, truthful, cheeky, generous, erudite, surprise-crammed, and emanating a delicious tang of sophisticated amusement. I would love to continue in this vein but I’m afraid I mustn’t. It’s just not right. You ... (read full critics)

spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

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7 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

Hornby's take on reading is extremely comforting to the common book consumer. Hearing a best selling author speak about such joys as 100-page-or-less literary classics which allow you to "check things off the list" validates a lot of secret guilty reading pleasures.

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Bossdog said on Aug 6, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

one thing about nick hornby is he rarely fails. am into the 4th or 5th chapter and i am really enjoying it! plus he is a BIG BIG arsenal fan, so... check out fever pitch, chronicles his love for the club from when he was a child... also see the movie of the same name, which stars colin firth... exce ... (continue)

one thing about nick hornby is he rarely fails. am into the 4th or 5th chapter and i am really enjoying it! plus he is a BIG BIG arsenal fan, so... check out fever pitch, chronicles his love for the club from when he was a child... also see the movie of the same name, which stars colin firth... excellent!
finished reading this in 2 days - laugh out loud funny sometimes! he really has a gift for words and great story-telling skills...

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fatfacefan said on Jul 8, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

An honest reader's diary

For a few years, Nick Hornby kept a diary of the books he bought and read: lots of lesser-known contemporary novels/biographies/non)fiction and the occasional (modern) classic. In these columns, Hornby mainly shows himself to be a lover of books and less of a critic. Readability is a good thing in h ... (continue)

For a few years, Nick Hornby kept a diary of the books he bought and read: lots of lesser-known contemporary novels/biographies/non)fiction and the occasional (modern) classic. In these columns, Hornby mainly shows himself to be a lover of books and less of a critic. Readability is a good thing in his opinion, and his down-to-earth and sceptic approach to what is called literature is refreshing and honest. Add to that delightful sense of humour, and you have a nice, intersting and most of all readable account of a person who just loves book - and as a consequence always buys more than he can read.

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Niek said on Sep 20, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

As enjoyable as a novel. More enjoyable than a novel, at times. Hornby is not a critic, he couldn't be farther from being one, yet I think that his little essays tell much about our actitude towards reading, what it is like and what it should be like.

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il Ciri said on Apr 30, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

A meta-book on reading

What Hornby does is more than making a list of stuff he has read. He shares his reading experience and relays everything in such a conversational tone that makes it all sound so natural. This book is funny, even if sometimes Hornby contradicts himself and he doesn't get deeper than his rivals in cri ... (continue)

What Hornby does is more than making a list of stuff he has read. He shares his reading experience and relays everything in such a conversational tone that makes it all sound so natural. This book is funny, even if sometimes Hornby contradicts himself and he doesn't get deeper than his rivals in critical writing.
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"The young Flaubert wasn't very rock and roll. He was, on this evidence, kind of a prissy, nerdy kid..."

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Martha Peake said on Apr 23, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

bellissimo! divertente! vivace!
che poi io abbia gli stesi gusati di hornby è tutto da dimostrare.
i pasi dei libri che sono riportati nel saggio (è la raccolta deglki articoli pubblicati sukl the beloiever) mi piaccioonio: c'è la satrapi, ferris, walter, hamilton...
cito a cazzo: ... (continue)

bellissimo! divertente! vivace!
che poi io abbia gli stesi gusati di hornby è tutto da dimostrare.
i pasi dei libri che sono riportati nel saggio (è la raccolta deglki articoli pubblicati sukl the beloiever) mi piaccioonio: c'è la satrapi, ferris, walter, hamilton...
cito a cazzo:
bowie is quoted as saying the 70s were the start of the 21 century, which means that the 20th century perhaps uniquely contained only seven decades
is it really possible that motley crue have destroyed all the literature in the world, everything that came before them, and everything written since?
you become increasingly amazed at the muddle that apparently intelligent people have got themselves into when they attempt to define the importance of - and the superiority of - high culture
if a recent survey in the uk suggested, most people buy books because they like to be seen reading rather than because they actually enjoy it
reading pickwick and learning a speech from faust by heart is not enough if your aim is to become a truly civilized person and not to sink below the level of your surrondings
.....

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inquisizione spagnola said on Mar 18, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback