I’m always keen to hear what book titles other authors like to recommend because there’s just something about their ‘insider’ literary position that make their recommendations seem all the more worthy (plus you get a voyeuristic gawp into their reading practices 
)). Bearing this interest in mind I thought I would use this week’s RobAroundBookLists feature to highlight a recently constructed recommended reading list from author Nick Hornby, which was compiled as part of an uber-creative ongoing promotion being run by UK retailer Waterstones right now, which features writers selecting the books which have had the most influence on them, and their writing.
I’ll make it clear from the start, as I always do when I’m writing around the shaky ground of specific retailers, that I neither wish to influence your choice of book retailer, or to create features solely so that I can deviously exploit them as a way to embed affiliate links. RobAroundBooks is and always will be advertisement and affiliate-link free, so relax and just enjoy this article without thinking there’s any ulterior motive, because there isn’t! )
Anyway back to Nick Hornby and as a matter of convenience I’ll list Nick’s chosen selection here in ‘vanilla format’ but I recommend to get the most out of Waterstone’s feature, that you click through to their feature page. There’s a succinct paragraph from Nick under each of his chosen titles, giving his reasons for choosing each title, and you can even read the hand-written ‘review’ as Nick originally wrote it. Also note, if Nick’s 40 recommendations aren’t enough for you, then there’s also the same kind of feature already been created for the series by Sebastian Faulks and Philip Pullman.
Without further ado then, here are the 40 books that Nick claims have had the biggest influence on his writing:
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