"books are, let's face it, better than everything else. if we played cultural fantasy boxing league, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. go on, try it. the magic flute vs middlemarch? middlemarch in six. the last supper vs crime and punishment? fyodor on point and every now and again you'd get a shock, because that happens in sport, so back to the future 3 might land a lucky punch on rabbit, run; but i'm still backing literature 29 times out of 30."
-the polysyllabic spree-

nick hornby, author of fare like "high fidelity" and "about a boy" writes a monthly column titled "stuff i've been reading" for the believer magazine. the column is about the books hornby has consumed each month. it's so wonderful a column that it's pretty much worth the subscription price of the believer for hornby's contributions alone. thankfully, you don't have to subscribe to the believer to read the column since the folks over at mcsweeney's (the publishers of the believer) have collected some of them into one volume: "the polysyllabic spree."

for anyone who reads, the book is fabulous. like i can't recommend it enough fabulous. it's basically just general musings on books, life, reading habits, anything. hornby pulls it all together very well and it's made me wish that all of my friends would write such a column every month or so. despite having a forum to talk about books, such as at a book club, there is so much book sharing that never really occurs. it's harder to discuss and really share a book versus something like a movie, where you can all get together, watch it, and discuss. most books are better shared through extensive words. and conversations are sometimes not ideal for that kind of verbiage.

hornby's column isn't about book reviews or anything like that, it's more of a personal journal where books take a prominent role. it makes you super enthused to do some reading yourself (hornby also has a book about music, songbook). one of the best parts of the column is the beginning where hornby lists out his "books bought" and "books read" that month. they hardly ever have titles that cross-over so the disparity is fascinating. you get to see what someone else buys and reads on a daily basis, which you hardly ever get to do with the people around you.

or maybe i just don't have that many friends who read books? which is quite possibly very true. but even among my small circle of avid book readers, the discussion of books is mostly limited to "how'd you like it? what's it about? should i read it?" books are so full of ideas and beautiful moments that it's very hard to share them sometimes without a very organized way of doing it. thus hornby's column is just amazing because he lets you get a glimpse of another person's reading habits and the how's and why's behind it.

fact: mcsweeney's publishes the coolest stuff ever -- like the secret language of sleep, but you already knew that. you have no idea how bitter i am that my idea for a "the 19 cuddle buddy positions" book has pretty much been trumped. bitter bitter bitter.