Haute Fidélité
by Nick Hornby
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 12846)
recommends it for:
girls i have dated/am dating/will date, guys doing the breakup dance
"sex is about the only grown-up thing i know how to do; it's weird, then, that it's the only thing that can make me feel like a ten-year-old"
"so maybe what i said before, about how listening to too many records messes your life up... maybe there's something in it after all. david owen, he's married right? he's taken care of all that, and now he's a big-shot diplomat. the guy who came into the shop with the suit and the car keys, he's married too, and now he's, i don't kno...more
"so maybe what i said before, about how listening to too many records messes your life up... maybe there's something in it after all. david owen, he's married right? he's taken care of all that, and now he's a big-shot diplomat. the guy who came into the shop with the suit and the car keys, he's married too, and now he's, i don't kno...more
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Read in October, 2001
recommends it for:
men who like music and women who want to understand how men really feel about women
If there is a more insightful and funnier look into the male psyche out there than High Fidelity, I have yet to find it. Nick Hornby's debut is as astute an analysis of male neurosis as Bridget Jones's Diary is of female neurosis. It's a masculine Bridget Jones, really, and should be compulsory reading for every woman who has ever wondered how men really feel about life, the universe and everything -- everything here meaning sex, relationships and all that.
High Fideli...more
High Fideli...more
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Nick Hornby's writings (About a boy, High fidelity, How to be good, A long way down etc) are classic takes on modern-day relationships that we often label as love, thereby casting useful insights into the minds of characters that any reader can instantly relate to. Well, not any reader. But if you -
1. Are living a life that's chaotic, boring and confusing all at once
2. Are facing dilemmas about love, sex, compatibility, fidelity etc.
3. Love your parents but can't live with them
4. Love your p...more
1. Are living a life that's chaotic, boring and confusing all at once
2. Are facing dilemmas about love, sex, compatibility, fidelity etc.
3. Love your parents but can't live with them
4. Love your p...more
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Read in January, 2008
I realize that I give far too many books a four or five star rating. So sue me.
Book buying isn't, you know, a quick thing for me. I browse, I choose, I read the blurbs inside, I deliberate, I read a chapter from ever book I've chosen.
In short, I only read things I'm really likely to like.
So, I will tell you right now, if there were a way to give [High Fidelity] six stars, I would.
Ostensibly it's a novel about pop music and love. But if that's what you're seeing, then yo...more
Book buying isn't, you know, a quick thing for me. I browse, I choose, I read the blurbs inside, I deliberate, I read a chapter from ever book I've chosen.
In short, I only read things I'm really likely to like.
So, I will tell you right now, if there were a way to give [High Fidelity] six stars, I would.
Ostensibly it's a novel about pop music and love. But if that's what you're seeing, then yo...more
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Read in June, 2008
I can't believe nobody ever recommended this book to me. The lead character, Rob, IS ME. The way he thinks. The way he acts around women. The way he turns the task of making mix tapes (CD's) into an art. The way he (over)analyzes every mundane aspect of his life, work and relationships. I don't make top five lists or have such a crucial and pretentious relationship with music, but otherwise, "High Fidelity" nailed the neurotic male psyche better than anything else I've ever read....more
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You've heard of Chick lit? Well, this is a bloke's book. This is one of those books where you have to smile to yourself or else you find yourself laughing out loud and saying "Yes. That's right. That's me. That's what I do." This is great fun. Music, relationships, music, work (as long as it involves music), music, and did I mention that it is about music? For guys (like me) that are obsessed with music, whose musical taste is impeccable (and vastly superior to almost everyone else's e...more
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Read in December, 1995
recommends it for:
cynical romantics
No matter how avid a reader you are, if you’ve just been dumped, the first thing you need is not a book: that would be a quart of bourbon and Ryan Adams’s album Heartbreaker. That second item, at least, is one that would meet with the approval of Rob Fleming, the feckless protagonist and narrator of Nick Hornby’s first novel, High Fidelity. In the wake of dozens of subsequent single-person-alone-in-the-city knockoffs and the passable 2000 Stephen Frears/John Cusack film, it is sometimes di...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Jim by:
A librarian (spelled with a capital fabulous)recommends it for: Anyone who wants to be cool
My librarian told me that I should read this, noting that all of the cool people had already read it, and I always, always do what my librarian tells me.
Now, finally, I am cool for the first time in my life.
Seriously, though, I loved this book. Hornby perfectly captures the self-obsession and cluelessness a lot of guys experience in relationships and life. He also conveys the feeling a lot of us get at some point during middle age, that "what the hell happened" fe...more
Now, finally, I am cool for the first time in my life.
Seriously, though, I loved this book. Hornby perfectly captures the self-obsession and cluelessness a lot of guys experience in relationships and life. He also conveys the feeling a lot of us get at some point during middle age, that "what the hell happened" fe...more
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Read in January, 1995
recommends it for:
any man who is struggling to understand himself, or any woman struggling to understand her man...
Nick Hornbys first proper novel is an unassuming classic depicting twentieth century man as he is in male company and how he pretends not to be in female company. That he cannot be the same person shows us that something is wrong somewhere, but that the fault is in men or women cannot be examined as we’d only end up arguing about it.
Every possible failed relationship is examined in a top 5 of worst break up’s by the books hero and narrator Rob as he tries to make sense of his latest fail...more
Every possible failed relationship is examined in a top 5 of worst break up’s by the books hero and narrator Rob as he tries to make sense of his latest fail...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
music fans with a fear of commitment
I just reread this book after having struck up a conversation with a friend about how good it was. I even suggested the film to them, which to have a film from a book turn up tolerable is fairly rare enough to deserve notice.
My Top Five Desert Island Reasons to read High Fidelity
1) Relationships are tricky things. We can't seem to figure the one we are in out properly, and we are scarred by the ones in our past that went wrong.
2) Music snobs. My tastes are not your tastes and ther...more
My Top Five Desert Island Reasons to read High Fidelity
1) Relationships are tricky things. We can't seem to figure the one we are in out properly, and we are scarred by the ones in our past that went wrong.
2) Music snobs. My tastes are not your tastes and ther...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
the listers, the listed, the enlisted, the unlisted, the listless
This is the only Nick Hornby book I've read, and it seemed like a good introduction to the genre I imagine must be called "dick lit." I read it on a plane to the West Coast, and it was the perfect thing: started at take-off, finished just before landing, this had the perfect proportions of light and engaging for 30,000 feet. Ultimately, I found it sort of silly and empty and I had a hard time choosing between two and three stars, but I thought I'd give it a break here, because even tho...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who likes music.
High Fidelity is a book about a man named Rob Fleming, who is dealing with many different issues in his current state of a confused, middle aged man. The issues mostly have to do with his relationships. The book really offers what seems to be a valid male perspective on love and commitment. Considering that the book is a work of fiction, it scared me at times due to how legitimate his thoughts seemed to be. They were not always nice, but they were honest. The book is written in first person, so...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
anybody that likes Irvine Welsh
P. 169
"So maybe what I said before, about how i listen to too many records messes your life up.....maybe there's something in it after all.......It seems to me that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and plays, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as the finished product. You've got to pick at it, keep it alive and in turmoil, you've got to pick at it and unravel it until...more
"So maybe what I said before, about how i listen to too many records messes your life up.....maybe there's something in it after all.......It seems to me that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and plays, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as the finished product. You've got to pick at it, keep it alive and in turmoil, you've got to pick at it and unravel it until...more
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Read in December, 2007
This was a quick, easy read I grabbed from Dad & Sally's shelves when I was home for Christmas. Like the other two Nick Hornby books I've read (About a Boy and Fever Pitch), it's about a guy in his thirties who can't bring himself to grow up and become responsible (if I were getting these as Christmas presents, I'd worry someone was trying to send a message). As usual, Hornby gets a lot of things right: the inane arguments about music the protagonist's friends carry on in the r...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
music lovers
Wow, I can really relate to this book. Although I'm not as knowledgeable about music as some people (ie I am not in a band, I don't layer my own songs, I'm not a DJ, etc), I do feel that I have good taste in music. Does this make me a music snob if I talked to a guy last night when I was out on the town and he asked if Linkin Park would be at Coachella? That he wasn't into indie music but more into mainstream music? I got really...turned off and went home to read more of High Fidelity, which tur...more
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Read in January, 1999
recommends it for:
Hopeless Romantics, Jaded Cynics, People Who Listen to Music and Read Books
This was the first Nick Hornby book I ever read and I must admit, it's still the most enjoyable for me. I love the format of the book and the way Rob frames his entire life around Top 5 Desert Island Picks (Including the reason for the book's existence: The Top 5 All-Time Worst Breakups). It's a very funny book, but more than that, it's a book with emotional resonance. The thing about Nick Hornby's novels is that they seem small and somewhat simple, but because the characters are so well-defined...more
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Read in March, 2008
I had one of my friends tell me that he, under no circumstances, wanted any of his girl friends to read this book at the risk of us figuring out how guys like him think. I essentially took that as a challenge, and promptly picked up the book and began reading.
Rob's a thirtysomething sort-of single guy who owns a somewhat failing record shop. His now-ex girlfriend just moved out and he's struggling quite a bit, both with his store and his life in gemeral. While I was reading it, I kept hav...more
Rob's a thirtysomething sort-of single guy who owns a somewhat failing record shop. His now-ex girlfriend just moved out and he's struggling quite a bit, both with his store and his life in gemeral. While I was reading it, I kept hav...more
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Read in November, 2006
I find it interesting that this book is repeatedly referred to as a "bloke's book", the alternative to chick lit, an inside look at the male psyche... because as a young woman, this is probably the one book (and movie) that I find myself repeatedly relating my life and feelings to.
I too find myself judging people based on "trivial" things such as book and movie preferences, questioning why past relationships have ended, and tormenting myself wondering about things I'm pr...more
I too find myself judging people based on "trivial" things such as book and movie preferences, questioning why past relationships have ended, and tormenting myself wondering about things I'm pr...more
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SYNOPSIS:
High Fidelity is the story of Rob, a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend Laura has just left him for Ian from the flat upstairs. Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? This narrowly misses his list of all-time top five most memorable split-ups. Rob seeks refuge in the company of Barry and Dick, the offbeat clerks at his store. They speak the masculine language of ...more
High Fidelity is the story of Rob, a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend Laura has just left him for Ian from the flat upstairs. Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? This narrowly misses his list of all-time top five most memorable split-ups. Rob seeks refuge in the company of Barry and Dick, the offbeat clerks at his store. They speak the masculine language of ...more
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Read in January, 2008
This book is very poppy. The main character, Rob, is both lovable and a total wanker. The narrative takes you into the illogical logic of the mail mind and how it can obsess about minutiae.
here's brief sample of nick hornby's writing:
and it doesn't stop there. as a result of marie lassalle's cover version of "baby, i love your way" ("i know i'm not supposed to like that song, but i do," she says with a cheeky smile when she's finished), i find myself in two appare...more
here's brief sample of nick hornby's writing:
and it doesn't stop there. as a result of marie lassalle's cover version of "baby, i love your way" ("i know i'm not supposed to like that song, but i do," she says with a cheeky smile when she's finished), i find myself in two appare...more
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