I love readingNick Hornby's "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns - particularly the contrast between the "Books Bought" and the "Books Read" columns. They never match up and some books that were bought never seem to get read. Just like me! When he stopped his column in 2008 I was so disappointed (he was really the only reason I eyeballed The Believer magazine (sorry)) but he started up again in May 2010 - yay!I really liked his comments on David Kynaston's Austerity Britain 1945-51. It's not a book I would have normally thought about (and apparently this is a series that will run through Thatcher's election in 1979) so its nice to read Hornby's very extensive thoughts about the social culture of Britain during a time of stress.
He liked Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist far more than I did - I found the protagonist impossible to like or care about so never finished the book,Hornby apparently developed a liking for Elizabeth Bishop. He also reminded my that I'm woefully behind on my Sarah Vowell reading.
(June 2010 cracks me up because Hornby has to open by mentioning he went to the Oscars as a nominee - he wrote the screenplay for An Education - this was the month he finished Austerity Britain so he didn't have much to say about The Possessed by Elif Batuman, which is a book I also read a while back.)
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