It is indeed a dangerous book Hornby doesn't give out the actual storylines through and through but he does give you an idea what the title in question is about, or how it's written. There are a lot of memoirs and (auto)biographies on the list so that might be one reason why some of the titles don't seem familiar, if one's not into biographies. I've heard of some of the titles before (The Fortress of Solitude, How to Breathe Underwater, Old School, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Candide by Voltaire, The Dirt and Freakonomics) but I added them now to my wishlist because of The Polysyllabic Spree. (The Rory Gilmore books were already on my wishlist of course)
I've heard of Anne Tyler but I have no idea what her books are like, I thought she was a chick lit author but I don't think Hornby would praise that kind of novel, so I'm really curious about it now