Name: High Fidelity
Rating: 3.836206896551724 (232 reviews)
ISBN: 9781573225519

Nick Hornby

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

High Fidelity

I can see why people call this an incel novel. Rob’s flaws – self-imposed stuckness, totally absent internal locus of control, entitlement, miserable rigidity, and everything else – made the first third of this book excruciating. I couldn’t initially imagine how the book was going to convincingly turn things around. It’s tough trying to find reasons to care about the happiness of a man addicted to his own misery, and to watch him almost fetishistically pursue ways to drag his cast of friends down with him.

I adored the book once I was through, though. Watching someone rebuild their self-respect and self-esteem from scratch in their mid 30s is so real. When a person without a single seed of empathy in their personality finally finds one (and start growing it) it’s a hell of a redemption arc. 

Endearing, opinionated and just so vividly rendered for such a short book. I’m glad I stuck it out.

Grace McCarter

I can see why people call this an incel novel. Rob’s flaws – self-imposed stuckness, totally absent internal locus of control, entitlement, miserable rigidity, and everything else – made the first third of this book excruciating. I couldn’t initially imagine how the book was going to convincingly turn things around. It’s tough trying to find reasons to care about the happiness of a man addicted to his own misery, and to watch him almost fetishistically pursue ways to drag his cast of friends down with him.

I adored the book once I was through, though. Watching someone rebuild their self-respect and self-esteem from scratch in their mid 30s is so real. When a person without a single seed of empathy in their personality finally finds one (and start growing it) it’s a hell of a redemption arc. 

Endearing, opinionated and just so vividly rendered for such a short book. I’m glad I stuck it out.

Decent story and a good read through out. I believe the main character is a bit childish though and lacks self-reflection. 

Toye Jegede

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.

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.

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.

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).

De eigenaar van een kwijnend platenzaakje in Noord-Londen, die mensen op hun muzikale smaak beoordeelt, raakt daardoor af en toe in de problemen.

High fidelity

Fabio Bracht

Um dos meus livros favoritos, sem dúvida. Eu adoraria ser (mais parecido com) Rob Fleming.

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!

'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

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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