Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Teaser Tuesday: Housekeeping vs. the Dirt



After explaining that, while in Portland, he bought a book called A Complicated Kindness on the recommendation of several Powell’s Books employees:

Did you know that you have the best bookshops in the world? . . . . Over here in England, the home of literature ha-ha, we have only chain bookstores, staffed by people who for the most part come across as though they’d rather be selling anything else anywhere else; meanwhile you have access to booksellers who would regard their failure to sell you novels about Mennonites as a cause of deep personal shame.

--  Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby.

A Portland shout out from Nick Hornby! Well, maybe by "you" he meant all of America and not just the book-loving Rose City, but it was Powell's that inspired the anecdote, so I choose to interpret this as a compliment to my fair city.

This is the second compilation of Nick Hornby's columns for the Believer magazine, following The Polysyllabic Spree (reviewed here).

This is one of my choices for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.




3 comments :

  1. I imagine that clerks at chain bookstores in the UK are like clerks at chains everywhere -- paid badly and seldom encouraged to embrace their bookish enthusiasm :)

    My teaser, from Christopher Moore’s Bite Me is over at Stuff & Nonsense.

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  2. I love those Nick Hornby book review compilations! I have the other two; I've read this one, but lost it along the way. What fun.

    My teaser is here.

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  3. Lynn -- You are so right! Thanks for visiting and for leaving your link!

    LKT -- They are pure fun, I love them. Thanks for leaving your link.

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