Shakespeare Wrote for Money [Paperback]

Nick Hornby (Author), Sarah Vowell (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2008

With an affectionate introduction by Sarah Vowell, this is the third and final collection of columns by celebrated novelist Nick Hornby from The Believer magazine. Hornby's monthly reading diary is unlike any arts column in any other publication; it discusses cultural artifacts the way they actually exist in people's lives. Hornby is a voracious and unapologetic reader, and his notes on books — highbrow and otherwise — are always accessible and hilarious.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: McSweeney's (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934781290
• ISBN-13: 978-1934781296
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, How to Be Good (a New York Times bestseller), High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and of the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is also the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, and the Orange Word International Writers London Award 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant, insightful, and often funny survey of Hornby's monthly reading, March 2, 2009

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R. M. Peterson (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Paperback)

I knew nothing about Nick Hornby's monthly "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns in "Believer" magazine until yesterday when I came across this book in my local bookstore, bought it on impulse, and then read it in a couple hours. If you too are unfamiliar with Hornby's column, it was an amiable and often humorous survey of the books Hornby had bought and those he had read the previous month. SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEY (I guess I somehow missed the source or derivation of that title) is a collection of 15 "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns, the third and last such collection.

SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEY is on the meager side (131 pages), but that is one of only two criticisms. Hornby's reading interests are diverse and eclectic, and his columns are informal and informative, never stuffy or donnish, and usually both fun and funny. The quality of the last three columns (and this is the second criticism) dropped markedly, as if Hornby was losing interest and motivation, and indeed in the last column he announces that he is quitting the gig. A bonus is the funny and kind introduction from Sarah Vowell, whose humor and style is similar to Hornby's.

Examples of Hornby's (1) wit and (2) insight:

(1) Hornby juxtposes a book about the Band and another about the Stasi: "It goes without saying that the two wires that led me to the books * * * came from different sockets in the soul, and power completely different * * * electrical/spiritual devices: [the books] are as different as a hair dryer and a Hoover. Yes. That's it. I'm the first to admit it when my metaphors don't work, but I'm pretty sure I pulled that one off. (I wish I'd hated them both. Then I could have said that one sucks, and the other blows.)"

(2) In the course of commenting on the unrelenting depressive effect of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road": "How many times have you read someone describe a novel as 'unflinching,' in approving terms? What's wrong with a little flinch every once in a while? * * * Yes, it's the job of artists to force us to stare at the horror until we're on the verge of passing out. But it's also the job of artists to offer warmth and hope and maybe even an escape from lives that can occasionally seem unendurably drab."

SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEY was not so special that I am inclined to borrow or buy either of the two predecessor volumes, but it did provide me with two hours of entertaining and pleasurable reading and it did alert me to a half dozen other books that I am inclined to borrow or buy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Reading begets reading", November 25, 2008

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C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Paperback)

"Shakespeare Wrote For Money" is Nick Hornby's latest and last collection of his "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from "The Believer Magazine." The format, a monthly informal essay that begins with a list of books bought and a list of those actually read, is conversational and personal. The first collection, "The Polysyllabic Spree" was a winning surprise, turbo charged with Hornby's wit, enthusiasm and authentic warmth for books, his audience and life in general, all delivered in a caffeine-jolted voice. He's the cool kid on the bus who lets us all sit with him. You get the idea he cares what we think. He never apologizes for being punch-drunk in love with reading.

Now at the end of his "Stuff" career, his voice and style are no longer a surprise but remain something to enjoy. He's not bouncing off the walls anymore, which makes one wonder if he's traded to decaf and quit smoking. He takes some breaks, too; and there's one month where football on television became a priority and another when he's reviewing films to vote in the Brit version of the Academy Awards. But when he's on, he's on, as when he wants to wholly admire "On Chesil Beach" but he can't entirely let go an unintentional anachronism author Ian McEwan lets slip in a reference to the Beatles and the Stones. He wonders what's wrong with flinching when reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. This time around (columns from 2006 to his last, September 2008), Hornby discovers, for starters, a wonderland in Young Adult novels, chats up his brother-in-law's books because they deserve it, and notes how many recent books are devoted to particular years, like "1599: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare."

I came away with some titles to follow up on and a lot of fun conversation from the other side of the pond. I don't blame him for moving on, but I'll miss these columns.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Final Installments of Stuff Nick Hornby's Been Reading, May 4, 2009

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takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Paperback)

I stumbled on this book at a library book sale last weekend. I'd read Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, but didn't even know there was a new collection of his Stuff I've Been Reading columns from The Believer Magazine. Not only did I find a book I knew I would enjoy, but at a bargain price!

The book starts with a fun introduction by Sarah Vowell, but the bad news is that this is Hornby's final collection of columns for the foreseeable future. The good news is that this short collection is at least as enjoyable as the previous compilations.

As usual, we scrutinize what books Hornby has bought each month and which books he's read. We take special interest in his thoughts on the books we've also read. And we consider his advice about which books to add to our own list.

A highlight for me in this volume was Anna Funder's Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which I was pleased to find that he enjoyed as much as I did. He also did the obligatory plug for his brother-in-law's latest novel, The Ghost by Robert Harris. Although I thought The Ghost was better than the previous novels, Pompeii: A Novel and Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome, I still wouldn't go so far as to recommend it. But then again, Harris isn't my brother-in-law.

Since Hornby has recently written a young adult novel, Slam, he has more young adult books on his reading list this time around. I was intrigued by two literary criticism books he mentions: Francis Spufford's The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading and Daniel Pennac's The Rights of the Reader. Those are going on my list.

A typically amusing section has Hornby discussing the complicated love lives of Penelope and John Mortimer, in which he condemns John, not for cheating on his wife, but for neglecting to read her books. "This is unforgivable," he declares. "If I ever caught my wife not reading something I'd written, there's be trouble."