Nick Hornby

Follows the love affairs and belated growing up of a "Generation X" pop music fanatic and record store owner

High Fidelity

Shari Ilg

When I nestled into Laura's back in the night, I was afraid because I didn't want to lose her, and we always lose someone, or they lose us, in the end. I'd rather not take the risk. 

But most of all it has prevented me from sticking with a relationship, because if you stick with a relationship, and your life becomes dependent on that person's life, and then they die, as they are bound to do, unless there are exceptional circumstances, e.g. they are a character from a science-fiction novel ... well, you're up the creek without a paddle, aren't you? It's OK if I die first, I guess, but having to die before someone else dies isn't a necessity that cheers me up much: how do I know when she's going to die? Could be run over by a bus tomorrow, as the saying goes, which means I have to throw myself under a bus today. (…) To me, it makes more sense to hop from woman to woman until you're too old to do it any more, and then you live alone and die alone and what's so terrible about that, when you look at the alternatives?

After a couple of cups of coffee, however, I realize that this sort of thinking is not profitable, that it is, in fact, likely to drive me potty, and I decide to arrange something positive instead.

Ya era fan de la película pero leerlo a mis 34 años y con más cicatrices amorosas pega diferente

Pocas veces me he reido tanto leyendo un libro

Ricardo del Hoyo

Ya era fan de la película pero leerlo a mis 34 años y con más cicatrices amorosas pega diferente

Pocas veces me he reido tanto leyendo un libro

I really wanted to love this more than I did. The atmosphere, the love of music, the 90s essence seeping off the pages, it was all there. But my GOD I don’t think I’ve ever finished a book where I hated the main character quite so much. For someone who is obsessed with woman, he really seems to hate them. Rob does nothing but whine and moan and have zero self awareness which you might think would work well if he was redeemable, if along the journey of the book he learnt some grand lesson about himself, but he really doesn’t. Verging on incel territory, Rob things the world is made for him and the women in his life revolve around him. He is so deeply self-centred and moronic in his decisions that he made me want to scream at the page a fair few times. 

My rage about Rob aside, I found myself noting down a few lines from this, it definitely made me laugh, I liked the writing style and I found the lists fun when they popped up every now and again, but the overall concept just felt draining. It’s scraped a 3.5 star for me because of the atmosphere and overall writing, but I needed more than Rob’s self deprecating narrative of lusting over everything that wasn’t, and shouldn’t be, his. This kind of character works in a show like Black Books, but maybe the intimacy of reading this felt too close to such a negative character, I was happy to be able to say goodbye to him. I know I said my rage about Rob aside, but I really am done now.

Beth Bartholomew

I really wanted to love this more than I did. The atmosphere, the love of music, the 90s essence seeping off the pages, it was all there. But my GOD I don’t think I’ve ever finished a book where I hated the main character quite so much. For someone who is obsessed with woman, he really seems to hate them. Rob does nothing but whine and moan and have zero self awareness which you might think would work well if he was redeemable, if along the journey of the book he learnt some grand lesson about himself, but he really doesn’t. Verging on incel territory, Rob things the world is made for him and the women in his life revolve around him. He is so deeply self-centred and moronic in his decisions that he made me want to scream at the page a fair few times. 

My rage about Rob aside, I found myself noting down a few lines from this, it definitely made me laugh, I liked the writing style and I found the lists fun when they popped up every now and again, but the overall concept just felt draining. It’s scraped a 3.5 star for me because of the atmosphere and overall writing, but I needed more than Rob’s self deprecating narrative of lusting over everything that wasn’t, and shouldn’t be, his. This kind of character works in a show like Black Books, but maybe the intimacy of reading this felt too close to such a negative character, I was happy to be able to say goodbye to him. I know I said my rage about Rob aside, but I really am done now.

vanessa

Brilliant. This should be required reading for everyone before they turn 30.

Tobias V. Langhoff

I was just dumped, so I bought this book on my Kindle. I've read it before on paper, about every time I've been dumped (I'm a serial monogamist), but on Kindle I can highlight and share all the witty sentences that Hornby never managed to replicate in any of his other books – this is the only Hornby book I like, but it's also one of the best books I know. It's still the best book to read for newly single and immature men with no direction in life. Especially if you read the first part of the book when you're freshly dumped, and then have a break and read the ending after a few weeks.

Laura Mauler

I liked it much better than the movie because it is fuller, more fleshed-out about why things are happening and what people are feeling. The fun and silly stuff from the movie is still there, and still funny, and somehow better because of the balance with the emotional stuff.

Aamna

Had I known the movie was based on a book, and that too that it was just a shorter version of the book, with everything including the dialogues exactly the same...I would have totally read the book first.

Though both the book and the movie are fun.

Amelia Raptis

My new favourite book! I loved every sentence; that was up until the last one. Other than that half-assed ending, it was perfect.

John Lopiano Jr.

Besides the fact that I see so much of myself in the main character, this book really excels at having characters that are incredibly grounded in reality. Sometimes when I’m reading books about relationships, it all feels too much like a story and you know whether the ending is going to be really sappy or really sad; or even if you don’t know, it kinda sucks when you finally get there because you feel like no real person would act the way those characters are acting. I love that this story never gets to that point. You genuinely empathize with both sides of the relationship. You see the good, the bad, and the ugly in each of them. It’s real.

Rob Fleming está a punto de cumplir treinta y seis años y tiene una tienda de discos antiguos en el norte de Londres donde sólo vende vinilos. Su negocio, destinado a un público de serios coleccionistas de frivolidades, está siempre al borde de la bancarr

Alta fidelidad

Daniel Carril

Como bien dijera en su día la usuaria de Goodreads Núria: recomendado para "los inmaduros que hemos escuchado demasiada música pop".

When Laura dumps Rob (on the very first page) he is aggrieved and exhilarated, 35 and petrified. Trying to work out what went wrong, obsessed with music, and running an ailing record shop, he sets out on the road to self-discovery. This is the first novel from the author of Fever Pitch.

Gavin

Loved it at the time, probably because I was Rob, as a teenager (emotionally incompetent, hooded by vivid insecurity, monomanaical about music).

'Reading High Fidelity is like listening to a great single. You know it's wonderful from the minute it goes on, and soon as it's over you want to hear it again because it makes you feel young, and grown-up, and puts a stupid grin on your face all at the same time. If this book was a record, we would be calling it an instant classic. Because that's what it is' Suzanne Moore, Guardian 'Leaves you believing not only in the redemptive power of music but above all the redemptive power of love. Funny and wise, sweet and true' Mick Brown, Independent

High Fidelity hits me like a shared late-night conversation and an overflowing record bin. Hornby pours out love, career woes, and life's mixtape like the author's my bartender and I'm drowning my sorrows in relatable honesty. Not a perfect mirror, but damn if the reflection doesn't make me laugh and nod in recognition.

Liana

Follows the love affairs and belated growing up of a "Generation X" pop music fanatic and record store owner.

Elda Mengisto

"My genius, if I can call it that, is to combine a whole load of averageness into one compact frame. I'd say that there were millions like me, but there aren't, really: lots of blokes have impeccable music taste but don't read, lots of blokes read but are really fat, lots of blokes are sympathetic to feminism but have stupid beards, lots of blokes have a Woody Allen sense of humor but look like Woody Allen" (28).

The main protagonist, Rob, describes himself this way as he goes through a list of his top five most memorable split-ups of all time. This prologue highlights the number of quirks which ended his previous relationships, from not being allowed to touch Penny Hardwick's breasts to his drama with Charlie, who looked like "the one who got away". Told in the second person to Laura, it sets the stage in his life after he "split up with girlfriend; junk college; go to work in record shop; stay in record shops for rest of life" (25).

I honestly expected the whole book to be several chapters with top five lists, to show how Rob and Laura's paths cross again. Hornby doesn't do this; instead, he intersperses them with his misadventures working at his record shop, lamenting about life, and hooking up with the American singer Marie LeSalle. I like how it works here, especially with his writing style. You could get a feel of what is going on in Rob's head, and how he sees the world. For example,

"It's only just beginning to occur to me that it's important to have something going on somewhere, at work or at home, otherwise you're just clinging on. If I lived in Bosnia, then not having a girlfriend wouldn't seem like the most important thing in the world, but here in Crouch End it does. You need as much ballast as possible to stop you from floating away; you need people around you, things going on, otherwise life is like some film..."(74).

This combination works well in one of the climatic scenes in the novel, where Rob and Laura talk after "getting back together":

"As a human being. You have all the basic ingredients. You're really very likable, when you put your mind to it. You make people laugh, when you can be bothered, and you're kind, and when your decide you like someone then that person feels as though she's the center of the whole world, and that's a very sexy feeling. It's just that of the time you can't be bothered" (265).

That being said, I'm curious about the pacing. Around 2/3 of the way, I was wondering if Laura would return, as is suggested in the blurb. My general vibe with how Rob goes through the book almost seems like he was waiting for something to happen, even though he goes out of his way to try to reconnect with those whom he broke up with. It slowed down the pacing a bit, until he finds out Laura's father died.

Overall, I enjoyed "High Fidelity" for its writing style and its commentary on a mid-thirties man wondering about love and life. The ending was well done in terms of connecting everything together, which can get a bit frayed in places due to characterization issues. However, it's not a read you want to miss, especially if you like music and love and life (7.5/10)

Alfredo santos

it`s a must read for nostalgic and music loving men out there.. a must and will make you laugh and realize a big WTF

Patricia Macías García

I don't want to hear about this book anymore

Julia R. Santos 

The first book to truly keep me up at night, thinking, wondering, longing for its words. As a big fan of the movie version, which keeps the essential sulky light-heartedness of the book, but fails to deliver the delicious “British-isms” and internal monologues, I was beyond pleasantly surprised by this much too short novel. I am grateful for the way in which it has been told. Several times, I became the terrible Rob. I felt Dick’s social anxiety. I was Liz and Laura and next thing I knew I was a part of the story, and the book was a part of me. Not often is such an amusing work held up so close to your face like a well-lit mirror at four-thirty after a party you have no idea why you went to; It shows you all the pores and spots and provides amusement, bemusement and catharsis. You root for the villains and the heroes and then lose track of who’s what. Please do yourself a favor and read this book. You’ll emerge from it a distinct and seriously entertained being.

Sabetha Danes

i can't believe it took me so long to read this book. I'm obsessed with John cusack so I discovered the movie as I own all of his movies and fell in love with it instantly as it combined two of my favorite things, him and music. but even though this is one of the closest book to movie conversions I've come across, the book is laid out brilliantly. I'm not going to rave about all the bits I loved just read the damn thing because it's only 200ish pages. p.s. I still dislike Laura.

Sarah Escorsa

I just finished reading this book but can't say I really enjoyed reading it... I just didn't manage to get into the story and didn't like the characters much...

Erin Noel

I'm ashamed I've waited so long to read a book this awesome. I'd hope I wouldn't date a guy like Rob if my real life depended on it, but I fell in love with the way Nick wrote his character. I couldn't put this book down!

Olivera Mitić

It's really a 2.5 read.
This is one of those times where I'm mad Goodreads doesn't have half star ratings, because rounding up is just the worst option ever.

Gemma Craig

Just like the film which I loved! Really enjoyed the book.

Erifili G

Hmm okay mixed feelings about this! I picked it up specifically because I had to recover from A Little Life, so I needed something very light, easy to read, and far from sad. For that, it was perfect because it was exactly the kind of pretty indifferent book that helps you get over a very impactful book.

This was the first book by Nick Hornby I've ever read, and I liked his writing style and how realistic his characters are! I just also felt that there wasn't really anything to this book to make it special, and I struggled to see how some people have rated it 5/5 stars, just because it's very simple and doesn't really make you feel anything.

To me, books that don't make you feel or learn anything are rarely good enough to get 4 or 5 stars. I wished I'd been able to connect with the characters in this book a bit more, although I appreciated how honest and how realistically created Rob was as a man, that was truly fun to read.

I'd read more of Hornby's books, this one left me with a good impression overall, but I'd probably like something a little bit more memorable.

High Fidelity

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