More Baths Less Talking
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Authors: Nick Hornby
MORE BATHS LESS TALKING
MORE
BATHS
LESS
TALKING
by
NICK HORNBY
BELIEVER BOOKS
a division of
Mc SWEENEY'S
BELIEVER BOOKS
a division of
Mc SWEENEY'S
849 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Copyright © 2012 Nick Hornby
All rights reserved, including right of reproduction
in whole or part in any form.
These pieces appeared between May 2010 and
December 2011 in the
Believer
magazine.
Cover illustration by Charles Burns!
ISBN: 978-1-938073-40-3
ALSO BY NICK HORNBY
Fever Pitch
High Fidelity
About a Boy
Speaking with the Angel
(editor)
How to Be Good
Songbook
The Polysyllabic Spree
A Long Way Down
Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
Slam
An Education
Juliet, Naked
Shakespeare Wrote for Money
For Harry Ritchie
CONTENTS
A note from the editors of the
Believer
The return of the boomerang child; a venting of spleen; reviews by sailors from the Chatham dockyards; Mass Observation; attempted titillation
Tales from an Oscar nominee; a quantitative analysis of Jennifer Aniston's career as a subject of mental occupation; the Toddler's Truce
The psychological preoccupations of Americans; the Lost Booker Prize; mentions of Marshall McLuhan; devouring the oeuvre of Muriel Spark
Accolades for the Scientist of the Month; devastating effects of the World Cup; unsatisfactory e-reading experiences; the inevitable failure of impeccable taste
Dirty bits and dated couplings; sometimes-crazed introspection; Negative Twenty Questions; fortuitous typos; a singular and inimitable consciousness
The surprising discovery that some old shit isn't so bad; how to make yogurt; a handy guide to Hellenic philosophy; humanistic long-form poetry
True confessions of a literary fattist; mixed feelings about Dickens's output; inaccurate descriptions of Donovan; an elevated study of self-consciousness
A contender for Goal of the Month; crushing on Elizabeth Bishop; spectacularly crashing and burning; the constructs of taste
Typical activities of
Believer
readers; unpromising subjects; cells that grow like kudzu; fiction written by arty, ignorant, unemployed losers
A sub-Updikean marriage; familiarity with the deranged and fanatical; teenage athletes as the embodiment of a community's aspirations
The observation of obscure American figures; poor decisions made by missionaries; properly funny bedtime reading; a cat-gotten tongue
Reading life as memento mori; unlikely celebrity pairings; apocalyptic humor; the darkness of North Korea; controversial views on Tom Sawyer
Overstating the salvific effects of Great Literature; the introduction of a slogan; an advertorial for Body Shop Vanilla Shower Gel; the straight-edge scene
A righteous fury; the over-full cast of history; the sacrifices asked of a columnist; violent death; joys offered by the Waboba ball
Violent interests in the arts; everybody's favorite literary biographer; the unwanted and feckless sons of Charles Dickens; a shadow side
T
his book is the fourth collection of award-winning English novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and critic Nick Hornby's monthly books column for the
Believer
. It covers the last two and a half years of Hornby's reading diary, which appears in the magazine under the title “Stuff I've Been Reading.” The column always begins in the same way: Hornby lists the books he's bought that month, followed by the books he's actually read. The seasoned reader, accustomed to the vicissitudes of a life spent accumulating books, can probably guess without checking that in any given month, the Books Bought and Books Read lists hardly overlap.
Hornby's dispatches provide a surprising, stimulating, and inevitably hilarious tour through the contours of a deeply generous and good-natured intelligence. Hornby reads widely, with an inimitably affectionate and sardonic curiosity. The essays in this book guide readers toward great books in every genre, from fusty to pop, introducing works they may have overlooked, dismissed, or simply bought and forgot beneath a pile of other books.
Adding
More Baths Less Talking
to one's own Books Read list may renew one's energy for attacking a nearby pile of unconquered paperbacks, and should inspire a more forgiving attitude toward allowing those piles of unread books to grow a little higher.
MORE
BATHS
LESS
TALKING
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