This is one of those feel-good books for people who want to keep their options open and kinda stumble about their lives only to realize they had already made up their minds and are pretty dully okay with it. :)

Does this sound kinda horrible?

Nah... but yeah, kinda, and no, because that means we're all a bit horrible. :)

But that's okay because we all have that music snob in us and we are all horribly geeky about certain things. I happen to love music just as much as Rob in the book and I'm much worse when it comes to my books, but you know what? It's freaking charming. I love it.

Just the way I loved the movie before I knew it was based on this book, I loved it. It was super charming and embarrassing and appropriate and pathetic and downright glorious. All at once.

And I'm a fan. Still am, now that I've read the book. And my only complaint? I need that soundtrack running in the background... OH WAIT! I HAVE SPOTIFY! :) Tee hee!

High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

High Fidelity is a novel by British author Nick Hornby first published in 1995.

Rob Fleming is a London record shop owner in his mid-thirties whose girlfriend, Laura, has just left him. At his record shop, called Championship Vinyl, Rob and his employees, Dick and Barry, spend their free moments discussing mix-tape aesthetics and constructing desert-island, "top-five" lists of anything that demonstrates their knowledge of music.

Rob, recalling his five most memorable breakups, sets about getting in touch with the former girlfriends. Eventually, Rob's re-examination of his failed relationships and the death of Laura's father bring the two back together. Their relationship is, ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش نسخه اصلی: روز بیست و سوم ماه آوریل سال 2019 میلادی

عنوان: وفادارانه؛ نویسنده‌: نیک هورن‌بای؛ مترجم فاطمه حسینی‌سارانی؛ تهران انتشارات میلکان‏‫، 1397؛ در 356ص؛ شابک 9786008812883؛‮‬ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیایی - سده 20م

وفادارانه عنوان فارسی رمانی از نویسنده ی بریتانیایی، «نیک هورنبی» است، که نخستین بار در سال 1995میلادی منتشر شد.؛ «راب فلمینگ» در سالهای میانه ی دهه سی سالگی خویش، صاحب «فروشگاه رکورد (ضبط موسیقی)» در لندن است، دوست دختر او «لورا»، او را به تازگی ترک کرده است.؛ «راب» در فروشگاه خود، با کارمندانش «دیک» و «باری»، لحظات آزاد خود را، با بحث و گفتگو در مورد زیبایی شناسی، میکس و ...؛ میگذرانند.؛ «راب» با یادآوری پنج شکست خاطره انگیز خویش، هنوز در تماس با دوست دختران پیشین خویش است.؛ سرانجام، بررسی «راب» درباره ی روابط ناموفق خویش، و درگذشت پدر «لورا»، این دو را به هم باز میگرداند.؛ رابطه ی آنها با ...؛ بهتر است کتاب را خود بخوانید

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 08/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Un’epoca fa, per diverso tempo, è stato il mio libro preferito. Poi sono cambiate un po’ di cose, ma anche all’ennesima rilettura resta il mio comfort book preferito.

[83/100]

Ah, nostalgia! This book takes place in the mid-90s. Even though the protagonist is in his 30s, the content really does take me back to my time in high school and college. Everything was music and concerts – and a lot of the music he talks about is the music everyone was into back then. Also, I was a huge fan of the movie when it first came out, but this was my first time reading it.



In some ways, Rob reminds me of myself back then: insecure, paranoid, over reactive, etc. I would think a girl was interested in me and call the over and over thinking that was the best way to win her heart. Then, when it didn’t work, I would drown my sorrows in music . . . until I tried calling again. Now, I will say that Rob definitely goes a bit overboard in his relationships and how he approaches them are toxic. But, it is entertaining watching the trainwreck that is his life.

I think to enjoy this book you need to be into the writing style; cynical, self-deprecating humor that leaves you wondering if you love all the characters or hate them. I know that this will not be everyone’s cup of tea (ah, a British book, cup of tea, HA! I am here all night, folks!) I have been looking at some other reviews and it seems like a lot of people despise this one. I definitely get that – if this was not set during such an important time of my life and if it didn’t mirror a lot of aspects of my social life at the time, I probably would be too turned off by the frustrating characters and Rob’s basically inappropriate approach to every situation.

But, nostalgia wins this time – now I have to go back and watch the movie again!t

God damn this man is a fucking asshole Jesus Christ! Unreliable narrator? Nah. ASSHOLE narrator.

I wanted to hate this book when I read it, but I found instead that I really liked it.

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 you are reading it wrong.

It's a novel about obsession, rejection and minutia. As such, [Nick Hornby] speaks directly to my geeky soul. Even though I'm not a music expert, I see a lot of myself in the main character Rob - escaping into pop, defining his life through records, filling his head with facts rather than feelings and trying, oh so desperately trying, to be a real human being.

His relationships never last. If he's not outright rejected, then he's the one who gets full of himself and does the rejecting. He's not good with people, doesn't want to be, ultimately can't be. But he aches for them. He's a loner who can't bear to be alone. He pushes people away, but wonders why there aren't any people around.

Every word in [High Fidelity] felt familiar, even with a location (London) and a milieu (music fandom) that are unfamiliar to me. Somehow, Hornby strikes this strange, compelling balance between being incredibly witty on the surface, and being incredibly depressing beneath.

Swap out records for comics or videogames, and I am Rob. If you're a geek, and a male, and a member of these recent lost generations of "slackers" and "man-children", then you are Rob, too.

Hvala Bogu i ovom dođe kraj.

O Ρομπ είναι 35 χρονών,δεν έχει φίλους,δεν είναι ευχαριστημένος απο τη δουλεια του,νιώθει στάσιμος,νιώθει απογοητευμένος,η κοπέλα του μόλις τον παράτησε για κάποιον άλλο κι αυτός καίγεται να μάθει αν ο άλλος κάνει καλύτερο σεξ απο αυτόν αλλά δεν θέλει να ξέρει.Kαλύτερα να μην ξέρει.Είναι όμως?ΕΙΝΑΙ?Ο Ρομπ είναι λίγο μαλάκας(σόρυ αλλά είναι :P ).
Είναι ανώριμος και κολλημένος και έχει ή νομίζει οτι έχει πρόβλημα στις σχέσεις του με τις γυναίκες επειδή στην προεφηβεία του ένα κοριτσακι που του άρεσε και "έβγαιναν" για τρεις μέρες(6 ολόκληρες ωρες!2+2+2! :P ) τελικά την τέταρτη μέρα πήγε με έναν αλλο.Απο εκεί και πέρα ήρθε ο κατήφορος στις σχέσεις του.Απο το κακό στο χειρότερο.Αυτά λοιπόν σκέφτεται συνέχεια,έχει και τοπ-5 σχέσεων που τον κατέστρεψαν συναισθηματικά και επαγγελματικά κατά τη γνώμη του.Είναι όμως έτσι?Οι κοπέλες τι έχουν να πουν γι'αυτό?
Είναι ένα βιβλίο έξυπνο και αστείο και με έκανε και γέλασα αλλά αν ξύσεις λίγο την επιφάνεια είναι ένα βιβλίο που μιλάει για τις ανθρώπινες σχέσεις,τα όνειρα,την αποτυχία και τη μοναξιά και νομίζω οτι οι περισσότεροι θα βρουν σημεία να ταυτιστούν.Εγώ πάντως αν αλλάξω το πάθος του Ρομπ με τους δίσκους και τη μουσική και το κάνω πάθος για βιβλία,βρήκα αρκετά.Και ναι,τσεκάρω τα ράφια στα σπίτια που πάω να δω τι βιβλία έχουν .

In times of stress people resort to different coping mechanisms – some do yoga, some do wine, some smoke cigarettes …Rob Fleming, 36, recently separated from his girlfriend and in the midst of some sort of mid-thirties crisis, reorganises his vinyl records collection. While this might usually restore his equilibrium, this time, his crisis is just too big; and he is instead, led to reorganise all his ex-girlfriends. Hence the reader is drawn into an obsessive evaluation of Rob’s previous relationships, and this makes for a very funny and emotionally interesting journey!

Rob is thorough, he starts right at the beginning, his first love interest when he was twelve that lasted about three hours – he was shattered. One never fully recovers from that first burn, eh? He moves on, methodically analysing other failed relationships, picking them apart, diagnosing the effects of how he got to where he miserably is. What does he discover? Well, that he is a commit – a – phobe for one thing! A common ailment amongst men. And while he is not alone, his escapism and methods of dealing with his fear of hunkering down with a girl for the long haul – through the good and the bad, seem unusual! “Is it so wrong, wanting to be at home with your record collection? It’s not like collecting records is like collecting stamps, or beermats, or antique thimbles. There’s a whole world in here, a nicer, dirtier, more violent, more peaceful, more colourful, sleazier, more dangerous, more loving world than the world I live in; there is history, and geography, and poetry, and countless other things I should have studied at school, including music.”

This is a very funny novel. I haven’t seen the movie version, but I imagine John Cusack did a brilliant job. As a character, Rob is both infuriating and endearing. We appreciate his will for self reflection and unashamed honesty if nothing else….”Me, I’m unmarried – at the moment as unmarried as it’s possible to be – and I’m the owner of a failing record shop. It seems to me that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and plays, and anything that makes you feel) at the centre 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 it all comes apart and you’re compelled to start all over again. Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as a consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship. Maybe Al Green is directly responsible for more than I ever realized….”

He can be precocious and self-indulgent, at the same time lacking confidence and conviction. A memorable example is the dinner party scene: “I sit there like a pudding, feeling like a child who’s been allowed to stay up late for a special treat. We eat stuff I don’t know about, and either Nick or Barney comments on each bottle of wine we drink apart from the one I brought…”

Rob is also what I refer to as a “wobbler” (yeah, you know who you are!) I can’t stand wobblers (I know I’m sorry, I’m just one of those not on the fence, decisive people!!!) Stand up straight and make a decision, please! Which, ultimately Rob does when he finally realises that it is futile to “fear fear” – if we live in chronic hesitation to step one way or the other, we never move forward and we also risk missing out on life changing opportunities – so he stops “wobbling,” feels the fear and ‘grows up!’

Hornby’s writing, and capacity for witty and quirky dialogue is exceptional. He is highly original. I can imagine this novel in the hands of many other authors could have resulted in an uncomfortable literary mess. Written more than two decades ago, and couched very much in 90s popular culture, this novel still rings true today. We might not be listening to as much Simply Red (thank god!!!) or wearing denim with denim (unforgivable) and worrying about the Y2K bug (yes, it was a real fear), but we are still fumbling through relationships, hooking up and then breaking up, getting hangovers and having one night stands, enjoying live music (at least we were before corona virus, now we live stream instead), regretting and reflecting, loving and losing. And hey, thanks to hipsters we’re also spinning more vinyl records now than ever before!

Autocelebrazione del bamboccione

Hornby ci sa fare con le parole, nessun dubbio.... e combinando le solite due qualità inglesi - wit e understatement riesce a costruire una perfetta arringa difensiva per la figura simbolo degli anni '90, il ragazzo non cresciuto, l'adolescente che rifiuta l'età adulta, per cui è stato coniato il termine sindrome di Peter Pan. Peccato che, una volta grattata via questa pellicola di simpatia e battuta pronta, Rob Fleming sia e resti un bastardo egoista ed egocentrico, viziato e incapace di alcun sacrificio e queste pagine dedicate all'auto-indulgenza e al vittimismo esistenziale finiscano per irritare. Aggiungiamo l'orribile finale da commedia falso-romantica di Hollywood e il quadro è completo....resta il dubbio di capire come le donne, notoriamente più intelligenti e responsabili dei maschi, gradiscano personaggi di questo tipo anzichè liquidarli con un calcio alle parti basse...

I watched one of my favorite films, the 2000 Stephen Frears adaptation of Nick Hornby’s 1995 book of the same name starring John Cusack. I realized that I had never read the book, so I read it and then watched the movie again.

John Cusack BTW is one of my favorite actors and I loved the faithful adaptation of the book’s protagonist making top five lists.

Top Five John Cusack films:
1. High Fidelity
2. Say Anything
3. Grosse Pointe Blank
4. Runaway Jury
5. Hot Tub Time Machine

Hornby’s High Fidelity is set in London, the film is set in Chicago, but other than that, the movie remains true to the book. Rob Fleming owns a record store that barely make it by but is patronized by a loyal clientele of music aficionados. Rob’s employees, Barry and Dick, join with Rob in music expertise that excludes the normies who only just listen. They make top five lists of everything.

Top Five movies set in Chicago:
1. Blues Brothers
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
3. The Untouchables
4. High Fidelity
5. Backdraft

Rob has a set of neurosis that is funny but also relatable. He’s hung up on sex and why girls have broken up with him, brought to the surface by his most recent break up. Laura has left him because she, like everyone, changes but Rob has not. Rob’s biggest problem is that he never got over the breakup with Charlie, a girl who was kind of out of his league, mainly because he lacked confidence.

Rob’s incessant lists, and his reorganization of his extensive record collection is a metaphor for his attempt, often misguided, to organize his own life and for his place amongst those around him.

Top Five songs about break ups:
1. Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers
2. Someone Like You – Adele
3. I will always love you – Dolly Parton
4. Give it Away – George Strait
5. If you see her say hello – Bob Dylan

The novel follows Rob’s awkward, quirky attempts to reconcile his ideas about relationships and love with reality and his fringe element, rock star, outsider looking in rejection of mainstream society. Hornby demonstrates his great ability by describing scenes that we can all understand and with much humor.

Ultimately this is about love, relationships and the redemptive qualities of music. Great book.