Research Catalog

Title

The polysyllabic spree / by Nick Hornby.

Author

Hornby, Nick

Publication

San Francisco, CA : Believer Books, c2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

McSweeney's (Firm)

Description

143 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

A hilarious and true account of one man's struggle with the monthly tide of the books he's bought and the books he's been meaning to read.

Uniform Title

Believer (San Francisco, Calif.)

Subjects

• Humorous fiction
• Humorous stories, American
• Books and reading
• Authors, American > Books and reading

Genre/Form

Humorous fiction

Note

• "A collection of fourteen months of his essays from The believer magazine"--Cover.
• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• September 2003 : stocking up in Hay-on-Wye; polishing off an author's oeuvre in a week; a new thriller from the brother -in-law -- October 2003 : bad football grammar; John McEnroe as Holden Caulfield; the Dickens-standard for the appropriate length ofa literary biography -- November 2003 : football season cripples the pace; the Larry David-Richard Yates connection; plot-busting blurbs; literary hoaxaphilia -- December 2003/January 2004 : rescinding and refunding a previous recommendation; the impossibility of reading a Victorian novel in Los Angeles; a balanced fictional diet -- An excerpt from George and Sam : Charlotte Moore is frank about the hardships of raising autistic children, but she's still managed to write the funniest book of the year -- February 2004 : an edible poem; mandarin writers vs. vernacular ones; the futility of moving the pram from the hall -- March 2004 : reconciling the holidays with a new agenda; reading vouchers; the Cultural Fantasy Boxing League.
• April 2004 : the distaste of one's own cooking (and writing) ; Amazon reviewers ; a nonfictional gangland less fun but more entertaining than the real one -- May 2004 : following through on the Dickens promise; a retort to spareness; computer-animated classics; weedy young women -- An excerpt from David Copperfield : this passage from "Dicken's Hamlet" extends well beyond its plot-function in order to hear more from a guy who shouts "Goroo!" a lot -- June 2004 : the benefits of peeking into tortured lives; bad literature parties vs. rocking gangster parties; contraception -- July 2004 : reading begets reading in strange and unscientific ways; comics clash with classics; lascivious emails -- August 2004 : the good pop novel; suicidal authors of abstract works; vulgar narrative tendencies -- September 2004 : an unnamed literary novel; an unnamed literary biography; blockbusters; finger-steepling and sharks (in the same book) -- October 2004 : sex with cousins; instant classics; the impossibility of reading it all -- An excerpt from Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky : looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop? Patrick Hamilton is your man -- November 2004 : the insane capriciousness of the average critic; the well-stocked bookshelf finally pays off; when innovations stop looking like mistakes -- An excerpt from A Life in Letters : useful advice -- and tough love -- from A. Chekhov.

ISBN

1932416242

OCLC

• 57239349
• SCSB-11751699

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library