Books are, let's face it, better than everything else," Mr. Hornby writes in his new book. "If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on points. See?

The Polysyllabic Spree is Hornby's reading journal that documents what he buys, what he reads and what he thinks about all of it. (And it's nice to know that even for authors books bought almost always exceeds books read. I have banned myself from a bookstore or my Amazon Wishlist until I sit down and read the books piled everywhere. We'll see how long that lasts!) ;) Or maybe I should just take it as a compliment, not a lack of willpower. Commenting on Gabriel Zaid's So Many Books, Hornby quotes the author: "The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more."

Another Hornby book epiphany (and equally true, I believe): "With each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not. Maybe that's not worth the 30-odd quid I blew on those collections of letters, admittedly, but it's got to be worth something, right?"

The essays are all collected from a column he wrote for a UK magazine about his reading habits, called (you guessed it) The Polysyllabic Spree. For the complete making of the man, you might also want to check out his playlist. (That's my motto: Show me a man's books, a man's music and a man's shoes and I can tell you about that man.) ;)

About a Boy, High Fidelity, Fever Pitch... if you love 'em (who doesn't?) then you'll love Hornby's latest. Instead of fiction, he let's us into his own literary world, giving us a run down of the books on his nightstand.

If in doubt of what to read in 2007 - start with this.