Shakespeare Wrote for Money :: Nick Hornby

Title: Shakespeare Wrote for Money [essays, NF 2010 #5]

Author: Nick Hornby, intro by Sarah Vowell

Read: NYC

Format: Trade paperback

Nick Hornby is not really a top ten favorite novelist of mine, but I really enjoyed the first collection of his "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns (see January, 'Polysyllabic Spree') and was eager to read the others. It's unlike me, but because the bookstore didn't have the second I jumped right to the final book. And, even if he is more self-indulgent here than in the first collection, I still find the format and his voice charming.

Now, I could meta your face off with the whole writing-about-reading-about-writing-about-reading thing, but I'd probably just make myself dizzy. Instead, here's a list of stuff I liked/thought about while reading:

Intro:

- Sarah Vowell is just the darlingest.

On Reading:

- Hornby likes to say that reading begets reading; as I'm 'in the business' of aggressive reading, I have to agree. I feel like every book I read makes me add 3 more books to my to-read list. It's dizzying and daunting.

- In a discussion of Robert Altman's Nashville, Hornby suggests that maybe we should leave our favorite books/films/records alone in memory. He suggests that the confluence of right time and right place can never be recreated and that it serves the object best to be left alone in its place of exaltation. Of course, he recants (it's a silly idea, after all). But I like thinking about context and I liked that he brings it up for his readers to consider.

- All readers possess the right to not read something (when for whatever reason you feel like you should have read it) as well as the right to not finish something.

On YA:

- YA seems to be a focus for Hornby in 2007-2008. Right on!

- Books to read: David Almond's Skellig, Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat, M.T. Anderson's Feed.

- Apparently, there is something called an "Alex Award" that is given to books written for adults, but that would appeal to teenagers. Past winners look good. Must remember to keep an eye out for this list.

Misc:

- One month's column was about the movies Hornby watched. Maybe I'll do something like that.

Charming, quick, and worth it if you're into that kind of thing.

4 out of 5 stars