Inspiration (The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby)

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to read. I will read almost anything (with the exception of Faulkner. I have never finished a Faulkner novel.) that comes across my path. My "Books to Read" list is seven pages long, and it keeps growing. And every time I go to the bookstore, I come home with multiple titles.

So I've decided to write about what I read. The inspiration hit me as I was reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby earlier today. It's a book about reading books, which was...well, it was perfect. In fact, my "Books to Read" list has grown considerably while I've been reading about the books he's read...it's a vicious circle.

So this book. (note: Hornby is brilliant. If you haven't ever read anything by him, you must. High Fidelity is great, and it was his first book, so start with that.) It's great- it's a collection of essays that were published in a literary magazine several years ago, and it's about the books that Hornby read and his thoughts. I'm not quite done with it, even though it's very short, but it is very good so far. Unless it just all falls apart in the second half, it will be a book that I keep on my shelf for a long time--and that's high praise, as I have very little shelf space anymore, due to the fact that I can't stop buying books.

So a little about me, aside from the books. I'll be heading to graduate school in the fall, and I have one summer of freedom without a job to do whatever(lucky me). I wasn't an English major in college (I hate all the grammar stuff), and I don't write, but I have always had my nose in a book. I used to read two or three at a time, but I've found that I get through with them faster if I concentrate on one at a time. I do read just about anything. I don't have favorite books, either, though I used to have favorites. The list just got too long. I do, however, have a list of books I believe everyone should read:

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

7. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

8. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

10. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (in English and French)

So I suppose that's all for now...I'll be posting randomly, as I read things that I like or dislike.