Okay, wait a minute. I love Nick Hornby's book, The Polysyllabic Spree. First off, I only came across it by reading this post. It would seem that many of you have already read this book...why didn't you tell me it was so good? Probably what really sent me off to the bookstore in search of this book was my new desire to read more essays. It was a matter of putting two and two together and then finding it on the shelf. Even though I am not supposed to be starting a new book until I finish one already on the reading pile, what can one little essay hurt I said? My new goal is to try and read three essays a week, so why not start here?
I am not even going to bother adding this book to my "current reads" list on my sidebar--I don't expect it to languish on my reading pile long enough for anyone to even notice it there! When I read the essays I feel like he is writing exactly what I am thinking and feeling. I wonder how much of the book I can quote for you? Hornby writes these essays for the magazine, The Believer, which apparently I am now going to have to search for. He begins by laying some ground rules, the first of which I can particularly relate to:
"I don't want anyone writing in to point out that I spend too much money on books, many of which I will never read. I know that already. I certainly intend to read all of them, more or less. My intentions are good. Anyway, it's my money. And I'll bet you do it too."
Yes, he knows us too well. All his essays are about books he has bought and books he has read. And when he talks about a particular book, which he wanted to read, he had read the author's previous book and loved it, so he knew what he was in for when he started reading it, he says:
"...it wasn't just up my street; it was actually knocking on my front door and peering through the letter box to see if I was in."
Those are the best kinds of books. For me, the Ami McKay book and the William Styron, which I am currently reading, are exactly like that. There are books that you like or enjoy or can appreciate, and then there are those books that you Love! Anyway, if the rest of the books I found in the essay section at the booksore yesterday are like this one, they most certainly are not going to last me through the summer.
I suspect each and every essay is going to be different than the last, each with its own flavor and style. I did search out a few anthologies at my library when I had to return the Lopate book. I found one edited by Maureen Howard, The Penguin Book of Contemporary American Essays (which sadly had never been checked out until I came along and appears to be out of print as well). Already I am liking it though--in her introduction Howard talks about her love of reading essays (and you can also compare this idea to blogs--and why I love reading book/litblogs):
"I heard these writers, though I had no notion of what is called, in literary parlance, a writer's voice, and I suppose that is what I loved about a good essay then and admire it still. An essay, though it takes as many shapes as weather or daylight, always has the immediacy of a real voice, some necessity to the telling that lies close behind the written word."
So, my goal is again (at least) three essays a week. Preferably three by different authors. I should have plenty to choose from, as I also checked out The Best American Essays of the Century edited by Joyce Carol Oates, to go with the Mary McCarthy anthology and all my bookstore finds. It can be dangerous discovering new things.