Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Nick Hornby's most important books

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels How to Be Good, High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the editor of the short story collection Speaking with the Angel.

His new book, Slam, is his first YA novel.

He recently told Newsweek about his five most important books.

And he addressed two other book-related issues:

A certifiable major book you haven't read:

The most egregious? Middlemarch by George Eliot. It constantly nags me. Someday. Maybe.

A classic that, upon rereading, disappointed:

I hate dissing books, but Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It wasn't as funny as I remembered it. I read it at the right time, in the right place, and I should have left it at that. When I went back, I couldn't understand its old effect on me.

Read about Hornby's most important books.

--Marshal Zeringue