31 Songs - Nick Hornby

Having enjoyed ''High Fidelity '' and ''About A Boy'' while considering Nick Hornby to be as much of a music geek as myself, when I came across ''31 Songs'' (including a chapter on my beloved Nick Cave) for £1.99 in my local Oxfam (rrp £6.99) I had to get it. Given the fact that I like a wide range of music genres I scanned the content list with great interest. But sadly by the time I reached the end of the first chapter this interest was well on the wane. The actual appearance of the book does not add to the appeal of the subject matrter and in fact detracts from the read in my opinion. With grainy black and white photographs and a double spaced ...  Read the complete review

On picking up 31 Songs, by Nick Hornby, the suspicion that this is just an ego-fest, similar to many dooyoo member?s selections of favourite songs/CDs/bands, apart from size of audience of course, is very strong. What would make this volume of short essays about his favourite pop tunes that much different from any other writer?s? The answer, having ploughed through the book in just a couple of hours ~ it doesn?t look large print but there?s not a lot on each page, and many pictures ~ is not a lot. Of course the actual selection is very different, but on the whole the writing is no more pictorial, persuasive or pun-filled than any better dooyoo writer. ...  Read the complete review