Rob runs a record store in London, has two weird sidekicks, creates silly top-five lists of everything and his girlfriend Laura has just finished with him. What more could I say about him ? Well, Rob is thirty-five selfish asshole, pompous snob and a pathetic, emotionally immature loser. But I still like him . And who is immature now, huh ?

Do not worry, I will not treat you now with a tearful story about my ex, though I will tell you about a guy who, if I ever had compiled, in imitation of Rob, list of the most memorable and painful partings in my life, would have taken not only the first place. Actually he would take the whole podium. Piotr, do not let him remain nameless, after all the winner takes it all, so, Piotr was nice and sensitive guy, somehow wonderfully shy and helpless. He was a guy because of whom when we split-up I lost the plot for a while then. And I lost the subplot, the script, the soundtrack, the intermission, my popcorn the credits, and the exit sign .

Well, he was a selfish asshole and pathetic loser.
Who said that? Oh, shut up ! My older and more cynical self, I'm not in the mood to listen to you today.

We were wandering around the streets, by whole hours listening to the music, discussing books . Nothing special. And Heaven knows I'm miserably now in my life ... I do not remember if Piotr loved The Smiths, certainly we listened to The Clash, jazz, a bit of blues. Piotr run a record store but nowadays works on the radio, sometimes I come across on his programme and ... it's always nice to hear his voice. Oddly enough, I never thought then he had a radio voice. And really he had .

But let's get back to Rob. Hornby created a bitter - sweet, ironic portrait of lonely and scared man. Rob is a guy with simple solution for everything, with justification for any situation. He is like a kid who believes that life is a movie in which all the others play supporting roles. But because life is neither pop charts nor listeners choice you seldom get what you think you deserve .

Hornby's observations are accurate and witty, spiced with wry humour, and even when Rob feels miserable and has a hard time - this is not any existential drama. And when he finally states that even people with, in his opinion, trashy collection of records, are ok, there is a hope for him yet.

Nick Hornby is da bomb! Seriously. He's funny, astute and while one might think they are reading a straight-forward, comedic tale, there are some fairly deep assessments going on within. Some moments made me laugh out loud and some moments, all too relatable, made my heart hurt. Also - Hornby's book totally made me have an awesome dream about John Cusack and that can never be a bad thing. Ever.

Opening line: My desert -island, all time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order:”

This is one of those modern classics on everyone’s “to read” list and while it wasn’t my first Nick Hornby book it is the one that everyone talks about so of course I went into this expecting to be awed. I guess I should mention that I haven’t seen the movie (what! I know) so I knew nothing about the storyline, not that that would have influenced me I just went into this blind.

And, well I wish I could say I loved this (since that would make me one of the cool kids) but honestly the best I can come up with is under whelmed. Of course the writing is wonderful and it really is laugh-out-loud funny in places but I also found myself alternating between skim reading (because the story wasn’t going anywhere) and all the 80’s pop music references and top 5 lists got to be a bit much. But then I'd catch myself rereading and marking numerous passages because they were just genius, describing exactly how I felt/feel.

I should tell you that the music references are somewhat dated now and anyone under the age of 40 will be scratching their heads especially if you live in America as this involves British pop music and Indie bands.

I think one of the main problems for me is that our protagonist Rob isn’t a very likable character. It was hard to have any sort of compassion for him or for that matter even want to read about him. I actually found myself preferring any of the sections that placed him with other people because when we were alone in his head being all introspective I got bored. Rob is immature, selfish, self-absorbed and depressed, stuck in a job, apartment and relationship that have all gone stale. He has zero self confidence yet at the same time is so full of himself that he expects everything to revolve around him, which of course it doesn’t and this in turn makes him lash out at his friends, parents and girlfriend to feel better about the state of his life.

Rob is a bit of a loser; a thirty-something music junkie he spends his days running a near failing record shop and reminiscing about the 80’s when he was semi successful DJ. Rob’s life has stalled and he can’t see a way out so he compiles top 5 lists of his favourite bands, songs, episodes of Cheers etc, insults his equally lost friends and plots ways to kill the guy who lives in the flat upstairs and stole his girlfriend. Along the way Rob manages to grow up, (some) and realizes change might not be so horrible.

En “Alta Fidelidad”, Nick Hornby nos presenta a Rob Fleming, un treintañero propietario de una tienda de discos de segunda mano en Londres, en los primeros años de la década de 1990. Mientras su última relación amorosa hace aguas y se enfrenta a la crisis de los treinta, Rob se embarca en un viaje introspectivo a través de sus listas de éxitos musicales y fracasos sentimentales pasados. Con un humor ácido y una banda sonora que marca el ritmo de la narración, Hornby teje una historia sobre el compromiso, la “fidelidad”, la búsqueda del amor verdadero y la madurez.

Narrada en primera persona, la prosa es directa, accesible, honesta, irónica y llena de humor. Hornby demuestra un talento especial para capturar el lenguaje cotidiano y los pensamientos de sus personajes de una manera que el lector siente en todo momento muy auténtica, con un estilo conversacional, diálogos ágiles y observaciones agudas sobre la vida, las relaciones y la cultura popular. Hornby utiliza un tono confesional a través del cual el protagonista/narrador, Rob Fleming, se dirige directamente al lector, compartiendo sus reflexiones, dudas y descubrimientos de una manera íntima. Esta técnica crea una sensación de cercanía y complicidad entre el lector y el personaje. El humor desempeña un papel crucial en la novela, sirviendo tanto para aliviar la tensión de las situaciones difíciles como para ofrecer una perspectiva irónica sobre los caprichos y contradicciones de la vida.

Rob Fleming, el protagonista, es un personaje complejo y reflexivo. Es un apasionado de la música con cierta inclinación hacia la autocompasión y el autosabotaje, especialista en comidas de coco y pajas mentales que no hacen sino aumentar su ansiedad. A lo largo de la novela, Rob lucha con sus inseguridades y miedos tratando de encontrar un significado en su vida.

La música desempeña un papel central tanto en la vida de Rob como en la estructura y temática de la novela. Para él, la música no es simplemente una pasión o un negocio; es una forma de entenderse a sí mismo y al mundo que lo rodea. A través de las listas de "los cinco mejores" y las referencias constantes a canciones, álbumes y artistas, Rob utiliza la música como una especie de brújula emocional. Le permite conectar recuerdos, expresar emociones y procesar experiencias, especialmente en lo que respecta a sus relaciones amorosas. La música también sirve como un marcador temporal y cultural en la vida de Rob, ayudándole a navegar por sus propias etapas de crecimiento y cambio. Las canciones y los discos se convierten en puntos de referencia que evocan momentos específicos en su vida, desde la nostalgia de la juventud hasta la realidad más cruda de la edad adulta. En cuanto a la novela, la música actúa como un elemento unificador que teje la historia y los personajes en un tapiz muy bien urdido. Hornby utiliza las referencias musicales para establecer el tono, el ambiente y el contexto cultural de la narrativa. La música se convierte en un lenguaje compartido entre los personajes y el lector, creando una deliciosa experiencia de lectura. Aunque la música une a los personajes en muchos niveles, también revela las brechas y las diferencias que existen entre ellos, especialmente en cuanto se refiere a gustos, valores y perspectivas, actuando como un espejo de las emociones y experiencias de los personajes, así como un dispositivo narrativo que enriquece la textura y la profundidad de la novela.

“Alta fidelidad” es una novela que gustará en especial a aquellos que crecieron en la época pre-internet: la de los vinilos, las discotecas del viernes y sábado por la noche y las cintas grabadas en la platina para la chica o chico a quien querías impresionar, y que hoy no dudarán ni un minuto en montarse una lista de Spotify con las decenas de canciones de esa época que se mencionan en la novela; pero también gustará a aquellos que se encuentran ahora en la treintena, pues se darán cuenta de que los tiempos pueden haber cambiado, pero que las relaciones de pareja siguen siendo tan complicadas ahora como lo eran entonces.

максимально не моя історія, коли б не обговорення у книжковому клубі, то закинула б її на 18 сторінці

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 though it wasn't funny like B Jones, it was a lot more culturally accessible (I don't remember what kind of music Ms. J liked, but I'll bet it was bad).

After all, it's only dick lit, and it served its purpose, which was to preoccupy me while I suffered through the torturous experience of flying in an airplane. I sort of liked the formula, and the idea that the boy version of "fairytale romance" isn't meeting Miss Right and riding away together on a handsome stallion, but instead just finally scraping your shit together enough to act a little bit like a grownup in time to avoid permanently alienating the charming girl who's fed up with your tiresome immaturity. Is that the standard male fantasy? Weird.

So I first heard of Nick Hornby around 2010. He had just released a collaborative music CD with Ben Folds called Lonely Avenue. I was a big fan of BF (and BF5) and wanted to check it out. While it wasn’t my favorite BF release I still enjoyed it - and of course I wanted to know who Nick Hornby was and why Folds would write some music with him. A little *google* research and I discovered he was the genius behind High Fidelity - which was one of my favorite movies from 2000. (Admittedly I like pretty much anything John Cusack is in - so it probably swayed my opinion a bit.)

But there’s more... the screenplay was based on Hornby’s novel of the same name released in 1995. So I went out and bought it and like so many of my other books ... ashamedly it sat collecting dust on my bookshelves for several years. My recent love of audiobooks gave me the idea to try it out in that format, but my library didn’t own it. So I recommended they buy it and - after a year of waiting they did - and I was first in line.

You mean the book where a pompous sack of sexist shit gets to not only take a dump on his independent ex-girlfriend, while acting pretentious based off of his 'extraordinary' music tastes, but gets her back and somehow everything between them just isn't just fixed - but somehow miraculously better?
I CALL BULLSHIT.
The starred reviews for this are a fucking riot, celebrating Rob''s "manliness" and telling men not to share this with their girlfriends, because heaven forbid the SECRET WILL BE OUT.
what SECRET?!
THE ONE OF HOW TO BE A FUCKING WHINY WANKER WHO SEEMS TO BE THE INSPIRATION FOR JOHN GREEN'S MALE PROTAGONISTS???
fuck. you.

One of the funniest and most relatable novels I've ever read. Utterly brilliant!

I’m honestly shocked this has the moderately high ratings that it has. It was the whiniest, most self-absorbed frat boy prattle I’ve read probably ever. There was no real point, just the protagonist wallowing in his self pity and cluelessness. Combine that with music and pop culture references I knew nothing about and British slang I barely understood, and it was a hard miss for me. I ended up skimming it towards the end once I confirmed it was not going to miraculously transform into a masterpiece.

This read got me itching to watch John Cusack in the movie form, but I haven’t looked it up yet. It is in the making as a series with the gender of the lead flipped - interesting!

This was an okay read for me, I feel my lack of music knowledge may have not made it a winner for me. Meandering young guy, not knowing what he wants out of life it seemed to me, but he wanted a girl that's for sure. Funny hearing the angsty teenage relationship uncertainty and sexual frustration from a guys point of view as it's usually flipped in the contemporary reads I come across.

In general, the meandering feeling dragged this out for me and I wasn't fussed. Also, choosing the audio version may not have been the wisest choice, I lost interest quite easily.

A modern classic, but not for me. I'm probably just too boring, and not the target audience!

Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.

n  I used to think-and given the way we ended up, maybe I still do-that all relationships need the kind of violent shove that a crush brings, just to get you started and to push you over the humps. And then, when the energy from that shove has gone and you come to something approaching a halt, you have to look around and see what you've got. It could be something completely different, it could be something roughly the same, but gentler and calmer, or it could be nothing at all.n

I feel like this book was written as a direct response to Bridget Jones's Diary, though I don't know that for sure and I'm too lazy to check the dates. In any case, it is surely a response to all the Chick-Lit that-at the time, and even now-abounds. And at first I was thinking, "hey, this is just Bridget Jones's Diary but with a Penis", but it isn't. It is exactly the same.

The same whingeing. The same horribleness toward people the protagonists want to have sex with. The same horribleness toward the people the protagonists have had sex with. The horribleness toward the protagonist's so-called friends. The same self-serving ridiculousness and not wanting anyone else to be happy because they're not happy. The same whingeing, the same arrogance, the same patheticness. Maybe you could say that Bridget Jones's Diary is this but with a Vagina (but then all the whingeing is fine because having stuff coming out of your vagina once a month that isn't just always blood is really, super annoying, though I can't recall Bridget ever whingeing about Vagina-blood at all...)

Is that the point of these books? To take pathetic people and give them the spotlight because, deep-down, that's all of us? And we never have our voices heard, despite getting drunk every night and shouting our problems out to the night. Are you really like these characters? If you are you should be deeply ashamed and I'm glad you're stuck in a dead-end job and not actually in charge of anything. Stay there, keep your head down, procreate because you don't understand the menstrual cycle or contraception and then die. Please.

I can't work out if the protagonist-whatever his name is, I've forgotten already-is supposed to be horrible, pathetic, whingeing, annoying, perverse-in short, a complete cunt-or not: is this the anti-hero kind of thing? Where we like him because, oh, he's a bit not "normal" (whatever that is)? Bridget was a cunt, too. I hated them both. Is this what people are actually like? What's wrong with people?

This isn't Lad-Lit, or Dick-Lit, or whatever manly spin we have on Chick-Lit this week: it's just Chick-Lit. It hasn't even got a Penis, and Chick-Lit doesn't have a Vagina. It's just people being cunts. With no reference to whatever you think "cunt" actually means or the etymology of the word "cunt", anglo-saxon or Norse or whatever. Just the metaphorical sense of a person being a cunt. You know what I mean.

By the way, I've realised that Love doesn't exist, it's just Fear of being Alone: or it is if you read books like this. I had so many interesting points to make about this book and it was all going to sound like I'd thought long and hard about it, and was making fantastic points and really making you think, and going in to how Love is a construct, and Fear is also a construct so is Love really as unreal as Fear etc but I can't be bothered. I really can't. Why do men have to read this and not read Bridget Jones's Diary? It's exactly the same thing.


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