Nick Hornby writes about 31 songs – most of them loved, some of them once loved, all of them significant to him – beginning with Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Your Love Is the Place That I Come From’, ending with Patti Smith’s ‘Pissing in a River’, and encompassing singers as varied as Van Morrison and Nelly Furtado, songs as different as ‘Thunder Road’ and ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ (reggae style). He discusses, among other things, guitar solos and singers whose teeth whistle and the sort of music you hear in the Body Shop.

‘I decided that I wanted to write a little book of essays about songs I loved ... Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else. I don’t listen to classical music or jazz very often, and when people ask me what music I like, I find it very difficult to reply, because they usually want names of people, and I can only give them song titles.’