A review by merricatadamtine
Songbook by Nick Hornby

3.0

Nick Hornby starts out the book by saying that these will not be essays about the memories these song invoke, so "Love is a Mix Tape" this is not. However, he has quite a few things to say about the thoughts these songs might generate. And being Nick Hornby, he does state everything quite well. This book did inspire me to look up quite a few of these songs and give them a listen. I just wish that the CD included with the book included all of the songs he mentions, rather than just a few. I feel that would have give the book a wholeness I found lacking. I was particularly cheered by his statement regarding popular media "It's a strange critical phenomena that only works of art that are "edgy", "scary" or "dangerous" are regarded in any way noteworthy...I don't want to be terrified by art anymore." This is a sentiment that I get pegged as "Pollyannaish" when I express. I was happy to see one of my favorite authors express the same feelings I have in a much more succinct fashion.