Ten Years in the Tub - Softcover

Hornby, Nick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940450365 ISBN 13: 9781940450360

Publisher: Believer Magazine, 2014

Synopsis

"How often do you begin reading a book that makes you immediately, urgently, desperately want to read more books?” (Booklist). Nick Hornby has managed to write just such a book in this hilarious, insightful, and infectious volume. Ten Years in the Tub chronicles Hornby's journey through a decade’s worth of books, as related in his wildly popular Believer column Stuff I’ve Been Reading.”

Ten Years in the Tub is a one-way ticket into the mind of one of the most beloved contemporary writers on his favorite pastime, but it's also a meditation on what Celine Dion can teach us about ourselves, a warning about how John Updike can ruin our sex lives, and a recommendation for the way Body Shop Vanilla Shower Gel can add excitement to our days. This "decade-long addiction for many... makes standing in line at the bank a blessed interval for snorting another page.” (the New York Times Book Review)

About this title

Review

Ten years ago when his “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column debuted with The Believer, Nick Hornby instantly became one of our most persuasive contemporary champions for the pleasures of the (examined) reading life. Unlike critical reviewers who tend to feign objectivity, Hornby abandons pretense--except in the service of jokes, and in reluctant adherence to The Believer’s snark-free code—and relates his authentic experiences with books, those bought aspirationally and immediately shelved, and those he’s read. He frames his experience of books in what’s going on in his life, which albums he’s playing, what’s going on with his son, how much he even feels like reading (which, especially in football season, can be not so much). He occasionally laments his ruts and takes wild stabs at unexplored genres, but his natural interests swing widely enough to include frequent surprises. He’ll put (or throw) down anything he deems dull, exhorting writers to cut the boring bits--like the random childhood anecdotes that can plague biographies: “Please, biographers. Please, please, please. Have mercy. Select for us. We have jobs, kids, DVD players, season tickets. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to know about stuff.” As I read, my wish list inevitably swelled, but it wasn’t the books themselves that made this one such good reading: for bibliophiles, Hornby is excellent company--discriminating but admiring, with brilliant, often hilarious insight into why some books work wonderfully, while others stumble on one sloppy detail and unravel their own fabric. Even if I never read many of the books he recommends with such zeal, I loved every vicarious page. --Mari Malcolm

About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of six novels, the most recent of which is Juliet, Naked, and a memoir, Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for music criticism, and editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. In 2010 Hornby's screenplay for An Education was nominated for an Academy Award. He lives in North London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Believer Magazine
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1940450365
• ISBN 13: 9781940450360
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464