Shakespeare Wrote for Money

by Nick Hornby

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934781290
• ISBN13: 9781934781296
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: McSweeney's
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Bring a pencil

I discovered Nick Hornby by accident when I picked up the The Polysyllabic Spree, the first of the three collections of his book criticism originally written for the Believer magazine. He followed Spree with Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and ends (unfortunately) with Shakespeare Wrote for Money. The title is a throw away line from the book but is also classic Hornby. This little demythifacation (is that a word?)of the Bard tells us that Hornby realizes that any writer is first, a person (like himself) who struggles to get words on paper in a satisfying order, with narrative arc and skill, who is also trying to Say Something worth reading. And, maybe, make a living. There is not an ounce of oracular pronouncement, not a whit of assuming he is better read than you or I (but, of course, he is) and he jabs at High Literary Merit criticism on a regular basis. Hornby is funnier than you and I are, in that dry British way I can only envy. Barred, he says, from saying anything unkind about any writer, he still manages to point out that some books, while they may deserve to be printed (writers need to eat, after all), do not deserve to be discussed. His enthusiasms can be enormous, but they are replaced (or augmented) a month or two later with a new enthusiasm. He takes time off to root for Arsenal (his home team), tease his friends (Sarah Vowell comes up), smoke and to be thrilled and a teeny bit jealous of the writers who conquer narrative arcs, effective language and insight. He ranges through 'literary novels', mysteries, graphic novels,political history and current events,genre benders and anything else that catches his eye. If you can say with honesty that you have been known to read three or four books a month, pick up these far too short collections and get some tips from a guy you'd want to have a beer with. Maybe two. Bring a pencil, because you'll want to remember some of his recommendations.

another great book on reading from a great author

I said this for Hornby's previous collection of essays on his monthly readings and purchases, but it bears repeating: You know what's more fun than writing about great books? Reading a great book about reading good books and writing, written by a great (and a personal favorite) writer. Hornby doesn't only make great recommendations, but his columns are about the nature of reading and literature in general. In this collection, he brings up a few interesting points. First, that the literary world seems to equate gloom, gore, and darkness with truth and beauty. Makes no sense. Second, Hornby writes about what really makes a reader, and how maybe parents and teachers are quite going about it the right way (as a constructivist teacher, a student of Dewey, Frank Smith, and other educators that have been saying this for decades, this I already knew). Hornby also delves into the rich world of young adult literature (annoyingly after he's already written his own young adult novel, Slam, but as his novel is incredible and also heartily devoured by a few of my students, he is forgiven). His promotion of great young adult literature was much appreciated by me, who has enjoyed the good stuff and spat on the bad stuff in the "genre" (that I also teach). Excellent essays. Excellent writing, as always. Grade: A

Terrific book -- book reviews + quirky personal stories!

I LOVE HORNBY. He's so interesting and funny. And a damn good writer too. This trilogy: The Polysyllabic Spree, Dirt vs. Housekeeping, and now Shakespeare Wrote for Money -- they're brilliant and I'm so sad he's not writing these reviews anymore ... I hope it's just temporary. Excerpt: ... a novel I had just abandoned by a senior, highly regarded literary figure ... It wasn't just the opacity of the prose that led me to abandon the novel, however; I didn't like the characters who populated it much, either. They were all languidly middle class, and they drank good wine and talked about Sartre, and I didn't want to know anything about them. This is entirely unreasonable of me, I accept that. But prejudice has to be an important part of our decision-making process when it comes to reading; otherwise, we would become overwhelmed. For months I have been refusing to read a novel that a couple of friends have been urging upon me, a novel that received wonderful reviews and got nominated for prestigious prizes. I'm sure it's great, but I know it's not for me: the author is posh -- posh English, which is somehow worse than posh American, even -- and he writes about posh people, and I have taken the view that life is too short to spend any time worrying about the travails of the English upper classes. If you had spent the last half century listening to the strangled vows and the unexamined, usually dim assumptions that frequently emerge from the mouths of a certain kind of Englishman, you'd feel entitled to a little bit of inverted snobbery. And yet another Excerpt: I recently discovered that when my friend Mary has finished a book, she won't start another for a couple of days--she wants to give her most recent reading experience a little more time to breathe, before it's suffocated by the next. This makes sense, and it's an entirely laudable policy, I think. Those of us who read neurotically, however--to ward off boredom, and the fear of our own ignorance, and our impending deaths--can't afford the time. Brilliant! Describes me to a tee.

Engenders further books

A book about books by an author of books with extra book sauce. Nick Hornby is a charming writer. His collection of essays from The Believer about the books he has read (or feels he ought to have read) make excellent reading, and when transported to the bookshop, make a handy reading guide. Prepare for late nights with the bedside lamp.

The Final Installments of Stuff Nick Hornby's Been Reading

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."