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.

Together with additional writings on music from his column in the New Yorker - seen in the UK for the first time - 31 Songs is for Hornby what many of us have always wanted: a soundtrack to accompany life.