‘The whole purpose of books is that we read them, and if you find you can’t, it might not be your inadequacy that’s to blame.’ Why, he asks, should you persevere with a book it is ‘killing you’ to read when you’d switch channels on TV if you didn’t enjoy the programme? He likes the ‘what next’ factor and is sceptical of the ‘literary novel’ which puts style before content. His approach to books is very much the Kingsley Amis one: they are there to be enjoyed. In fact, he thinks Dickens the greatest novelist who ever lived. Fortunately he passes the David Copperfield test. So, having finished a chapter but seeing that in the next one he’s about to read David Copperfield, or Hangover Square, or Greil Marcus’s book on Dylan, I would think, ‘Oh, must see what he thinks of that,’ and read on. Chapter by chapter NH lists the books he has bought that month and those he has read. I was given this book for my birthday and read it very fast for a non fiction book. Music: Bob Dylan Theme Time: Flowers The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby.
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