Housekeeping vs. The Dirt

I've previously read and enjoyed Nick Hornby's first book of columns from The Believer, The Polysyllabic Spree, so I was looking forward to his new collection Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. I find his reviewing style refreshingly down to earth and persuasive. I think his writing about music is also first rate, see 31 Songs. I walked away from the first book with 10-12 titles that I wanted to read and all of them lived up to my expectations that were created by Hornby. I think we have similar tastes-he accepts a challenge to read a Science Fiction novel but quickly scraps the idea. There are certain genres that I stay away from as well, and Science Fiction is one of them-save J.G. Ballard who I think transcends the genre. This leaves nonfiction (essays, memoirs, history, music, etc...) and serious literature-every now and then I'll read a mystery-suspense type like John Burdett's novels. I generally know what I'm going to like. Based on one of his columns I read from last year I read Jon Ronson's entertaining Men Who Stare At Goats. Based on this book I'm on the lookout for Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation (there's an excerpt included as well and I read her book of essays, Take The Cannoli and Run, and enjoyed it), Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (I found a used copy at the bookstore last week), Citizen Vince by Jess Walters (there's an excerpt from this one as well-and it's set in Spokane-my old hometown-of all places, as a New Yorker on the Witness Protection Program who is being hunted by a someone from his past), Five Days in London 1940 by John Lukacs (history), What Good Are The Arts by John Carey(cultural studies), Running In The Family by Michael Ondaatje (memoir).

More Homage to Hornby-December 2006

BOOKS BOUGHT:
The Ramones by Nicholas Rombes
Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby
Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
The Possibilty of an Island by Michel Houllenbecq
House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata
The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
McSweeney's 21(literary journal)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Bouvard and Pecuchet by Gustave Flaubert

BOOKS READ(so far):
The Ramones by Nicholas Rombes
Lost Illusions by Balzac
Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby
Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman
Hear The Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Hitchens