Being a reader is sort of like being president, except reading involves fewer state dinners, usually. You have this agenda you want to get through, but you get distracted by life events, e.g., books arriving in the mail/World War III, and you are temporarily deflected from your chosen path. Nick Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is The Diary of an Occasionally Exasperated But Ever Hopeful Reader . The book is a collection of columns, written for a literary magazine, The Believer , in 2003 - 2004. Basically, it's Hornby's personal reading log where he lists the books he's bought and read each month and writes something - inevitably humorous - about them. Reading about someone else's reading might sound a bit boring, but since it's Nick Hornby, who has a reputation of being both funny and entertaining, I naturally expected the book to make me laugh and entertain me. Plus I was hoping to get a few good book tips along the way. Unfortunately the humour ...