By Nick Hornby
This was hard to find; it sold out immediately and the paperback version doesn't have the great cd that makes it such a nice package (like everything printed by McSweeneys). It's very good ... Hornby is a favorite of mine based solely on the excellent High Fidelity, and this is almost a companion piece to that. At least, it examines music in just as much depth. Hearing each song as you read its essay is sublime.
If there's an overarching premise to this collection of essays, it's that pop music is a high art form, maybe the highest. And the book is such a delight to read that Hornby makes a convincing case.
Read April 2006