The Polysyllabic Spree

The Polysyllabic Spree is a literary column that Nick Hornby wrote from 2004 until 2006. At that time, I was studying biology and thus completely uninterested in "Stuff I've Been Reading", but even if I had been interested, the columns were published in the Believer, a literary magazine published in the US and (according to Hornby) only read by men.
But thankfully, his columns have also been published, which gives me in an insight into the difference between writing reviews and writing about literature and writing about reading. And has also made me realise that what I generally do is write about reading, whereas in my essays for English, I wrote about literature. Which is good, in a way, because way too many people write way too many things about literature as it is, and also, I couldn't actually say that I know enough about literature to say anything sensible about it without having the whole university library to use as a source.
It is also quite a depressing read, as the first book I actually recognised and read appears on page 86 (We need to talk about Kevin, which I only read because of a course I was taking), there is 1 mention of Jane Austen in the whole thing (to state that in her days, it was perfectly normal for cousins to marry), and only one mention of a McEwan novel (Saturday, I haven't yet reached the part where he discusses reading this, but I'm already dreading the moment). But as Hornby buys about 10 books each month, and reads about the same amount (usually different novels from the one he's bought), I think the most important conclusion from reading this book will be: I still have a lot left to read.
Which is partly depressing but also good, because I've been filling up my birthday wish list with "want to read this one day but haven't really gotten round to buying, let alone reading, it" novels.
The second conclusion is that Nick Hornby is a fun writer whatever he writes, be it novels or autobiographies or columns, and that if you are a good writer you can make people enjoy reading about books they haven't actually read themselves.
But generally, reading about another person reading novels is ever only interesting for people who read a lot themselves, and want to read more. The same group of people who actually read author's biographies and letters, and listen to the director's commentary on DVDs. I'm just happy that I found something that caters to this pretty peculiar obsession of mine.