The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

Funny Girl is the latest novel from Nick Hornby, released originally in 2014.  It pains me to say, but I had to put a Nick Hornby book down before I finished it.  I know.  Tragic.  I only read a third of the book, so it’s only fair to write a third of a review. Funny Girl takes place in the mid-60s and follows Barbara, a young girl from Blackpool, England.  She is apparently a babe, having won the local beauty contest.  However, she resigns from being the beauty queen (champion?) as it would mean staying in Blackpool for another year, shaking hands and kissing babies.  No, she has bigger dreams of becoming a TV star, like her idol Lucille Ball.  Her first step is to move to London where she lands a job at a department store.  It’s here where she schmoozes and networks with married men who take her on dates and who are also intertwined with the entertainment industry.  It’s not long before she lands auditions and in one case, ...

Nick Hornby, you’ve done it again. Every time I pick up one of his books, I’m reminded of why I enjoy reading. It’s simple: I enjoy storytelling.  And although it’s the reason why I like movies and gaming, there’s something about reading a good story that connects with me more than the other two mediums ever could.  I’ve done some thinking and, for myself, I’ve figured out why.  With (most) movies or games, you’re told a story and you see the action.  Even if it’s dialogue, it’s still action.  Everything you see is after the fact.  You’re not really given a glimpse into the thought process, the weighing of options and possibilities and everything in between.  Even the expositions in movies give you only so much. That’s where a good book has its advantage.  The thought process is allowed to be dissected.  You get to see what goes through a character’s head even before he or she makes the simplest decision.  You’re given ...

Nick Hornby continues to be my favourite author and Slam further solidifies this. He writes about me, without writing about me. He writes about characters who have one foot forward into growing up, but with their other foot firmly rooted into their childhood. Like in High Fidelity or About a Boy, they’re stories of men who don’t want to grow up. So Slam follows this trend of characters, except it turns things on its head a bit. Instead of a story about grownups, this is a story about a teenager; someone who is half-way between childhood and adulthood. With the analogy of one foot forward and one foot back, the teen would probably be mid-way... that’s right, in the crotch region of life. The story is about a 16-year old boy named Sam who is raised by his single mother who conceived him when she was a teenager. Sam is a typical teenager, the one that’s sort of breezing through life, without any clear direction or motivation to take his life anywhere. He’s a big fan of skating (as in skat...