The Passion by Jeanette Winterson Vintage NZ$23.00
Collecting Books by Matthew Budman - House of Collectibles (part of Random House US) NZ$33
The Company They Kept-Writers on Unforgettable Friendships Edited by Robert Silvers & Barbara Epstein - A New York Review Books NZ$55
The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby Penguin/Viking NZ$40
As reading time permits I'll comment on all of these. Meantime I did manage to read the Nick Hornby on the plane coming home and over the weekend and what a book? Wow!
Nick Hornby will be known to may as the author of High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good, and A Long Way Down (shortlisted for 2005 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award) as well as the non-fiction Fever Pitch, and 31 Songs..
It is my computer that makes him look purple by the way!
He is actually a rather white born and bred Brit rather than the alien he looks here!
This new book is an absolute treasure trove for the book lover.
It is a collection of the monthly essays he wrote from September 2003 until June this year in the remarkable US magazine Believer.
At the top of each monthly chapter for 28 months Hornby lists Books Bought and Books Read. He then proceeds to discuss them and anything else that pops into his head while writing.
It is simply wonderfully entertaining stuff without a trace of snobbery or affectation. It was a joy to read and I know I will be returning to this book over and over in the years ahead.
There are also selections from some of the books mentioned and an excellent index at the end of all the titles he discusses.
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