Treffer versenkt: Es ist nicht nur der typisch englische Humor, der dieses Buch von Nick Hornby einzigartig macht, sondern auch die Geschichte des Versagers der am Ende feststellt ein Plattenladen zu besitzen ist gar nicht so schlecht!
Für jeden der Musik und Top 5 Listen mag ist diese Buch ein "muß!"

The brilliance of High Fidelity is in its complex treatment of the male mind. You get inside of Rob's head from the very beginning, from his top five lists, to his job, you feel a part of everything he is and by proxy his mind. You feel his loss, his love, and his amazing record collection in every page. Great read. ( )

Well, no one can claim this is a great work of literary art or anything. But it's funny, and snarky, and entertaining. A great thing to read right after Madame Bovary, or War and Peace. Brain candy. ( )

High Fidelity is one of those rare cases, in my opinion, that a book and movie compliment each other perfectly. The novel is the story of a man who is basically a complete jerk, bitter and cynical, and his amusing obsession with pop music and his difficulties in love.

If you've seen the movie, you'll note that John Cusack's Rob is much more likeable and sympathetic than the protagonist of the novel. Still, I'm a fan of both. There's something to be said about novels where the reader is set up to have almost no sympathy for the narrator/main character--my detachment made me view the story in a different light than I had while watching the film (one of my favorites).

I highly recommend both this book and its onscreen adaptation. Both are amusing and quotable, and leave one with a lot to think about. ( )

really easy to get into

Really funny book and true music-lovers will like the classic band references. One of my all-time favorite books. ( )

Every guy should own this book!

Always makes my top five novels. ( )

I read this book as one of the Popular Penguins series released last year and am glad I did. It's a great book, although you may not think that from the synopsis: thirty-something male breaks up with girlfriend and goes a bit off the rails. The ending was suitable for this tale too.
Serious music fans (of which I am not) will recognise a lot of bands and songs as Rob owns a record store. (Yes, record. He also makes cassettes for people- not CDs or playlists for ipods). Kind of sad, pretty funny, Rob is essentially a fairly good guy and his story, while not unique is well written fun. ( )

Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is the guy version of Bridget Jones’s Diary, only even funnier.

Rob, the slacker hero, mopes around his used record store, obsessing on the girlfriend who just dumped him and on all his prior failed relationships. Fanatically opinionated, phobic about commitment, and neurotic to the core, Rob is the Everyman of the post-sexual revolution era. There is a little something of Rob in all bad boyfriends and good husbands, which is what makes him so appealing.

In keeping with the theme of the book, my Top Five Favorite Lines from High Fidelity, in the order of appearance:

Discussing his first real girlfriend: “Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breasts that I would try to touch between her legs, a gesture that had a sort of self-parodying wit about it: it was like trying to borrow a fiver, getting turned down, and asking to borrow fifty quid instead.”

Discussing teenage romance in general: “Attack and defense, invasion and repulsion . . . it was as if breasts were little pieces of property that had been unlawfully annexed by the opposite sex – they were rightfully ours and we wanted them back.”

“They’re as close to being mad as makes no difference.”

Discussing obscure bands: “[S]omeone with a cult following which could arrive together in the same car.”

“[M]y friends don’t seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven’t lost.”

Why, why, why did I wait so long to read this book? If I had read it when it came out in 1995, I could have already re-read it a couple of times. Now I have to wait at least a few years to enjoy it fresh and I don’t want to wait. ( )

I'm not really sure how to rate this book, because for various reasons a lot of it resonated with me perhaps more strongly than it might have had I picked it up next month, next week, or even tomorrow. For now I will give it four stars, because I think any kind of resonance in a work of fiction indicates that there is some truth in it, and also because the author makes two or three very astute and very well-stated points about human nature. And finally because I enjoyed reading it, which is something I think a lot of reviewers forget to take into consideration, but it's no less important than any of the other things reviewers talk about.

It was an interesting read because the main character is on many levels an unreliable narrator, and part of the book is more or less about how he realizes this. It was an interesting journey to make in the head of a character who had many traits I share and identify with, but also many traits that baffled me. The book treads perilously close to a line of self-indulgence that could have made it terrible, but Hornby's style of writing saves it from crossing that line by not belaboring points he does not have to. The narrator, while sometimes irritating, is ultimately someone in whom the reader can see sympathetic echoes of him- or herself, rather than someone the reader desires to hit on the head with a two-by-four and have done with it.

This one will be particularly interesting to reread a year or two down the road from a different place in my life. We'll see if it holds up. ( )

High Fidelity is a fun, quick read. My husband likes this one best of the Hornby books he has read. My opinion is that it is light, entertaining, and forgettable. May be more of a "guy book". ( )

What if ... your latest relationship has just ended, you run a failing record shop with two 'losers', and you begin to wonder if your life went wrong somewhere along the way ... what do you do next? In Nick Hornby's world there are only two choices really : you could decide into what logical sequence to re-sequence your CD collection, or to look back and review all the "relationships" in your life, starting with a stolen kiss in the park by the swings when you were only 13.

Rob, anti-hero of Hornby's novel does the latter (or probably both, given what we soon find out about him). He addresses a mental letter to his latest ex, Laura, explaining to her just why she doesn't make his Top 5 Break Ups (there are an awful lot of Top 5s in High Fidelity). He's been hurt, over and over again. Laura just doesn't match the awfulness that his love life has been up to now.

From this point, we find that "the gentleman doth protest too much" as he sets out to regain Laura's affections, while keeping his business afloat (with little help from Barry and Dick, the former shouting out of the shop any no-hoper who doesn't endorse the latest unheard-of rock band that is this week's definition of cool), befriending and then bedding American songstress Marie La Salle, while all the time doing his best to flee from the twin horrors of "change" and "commitment".

This flight from manhood is liberally peppered with Top 5s (Top Five Bands Who Will Have To Be Shot Come The Musical Revolution, anyone?), and Rob does eventually succeed in making some breakthroughs in self discovery before an ending that wraps things up a little too neatly perhaps, but satisfyingly.

High Fidelity carries Hornby's gift for good dialogue and wryly self-deprecating humour, even if his musical taste is fired directly at us in a manner that is both didactic and dogmatic. I have never apologised for being a Genesis fan, and Hornby won't make me start apologising now - I just wish he had not made me squirm on such matters.

It's a good novel, insightful into male / female relationships, an understanding of both the male and female psyche, strong dialogue, and wryly observant of modern life(styles). So, you don't have to love music to enjoy this book (but it helps!) ( )

Rob's not the most reliable narrator in that he's a very authentic voice and so believable. He never understood why Laura liked him in the first place, because he has some depression and self-esteem issues, so the reader isn't entirely sure either. But, Hornby is an author that treats the modern male well. He explores issues of masculinity and relationships from the male point of view, while not resorting to hyper-masculinity.

Rob is funny, the story is good, and all the music snobbery is great--make sure you have some most excellent music playing while you read.

see all my reviews: www.tushuguan.blogspot.com ( )

I'd seen the movie, and heard great things about both Hornby overall, and High Fidelity specifically. In reading, I realised (a) I read it before, or at least I'm pretty confident I have; (b) it's a breezy read, but not one that left me feeling I'd wasted my time; (c) there are far fewer "lists of songs" or "mix tapes" than I'd been led to believe, and in the end, I think that is a good thing; (d) Hornby is good at not only a "devastating one-liner" but also at observing life and people. ( )

There are many books that take an honest (if fictitious) look at the way that women develop their world view...the events that influence their personalities. There seem to be very few candid accounts of growing and developing as an adult male. I loved this book and I think it made me more empathetic to my male friends and my partner. In a world of fairy-tale romances that blind us to the joys that can be had in a plain-old honest and loving relationship, High Fidelity shows us how we can find happiness with the one with love, flaws and all. ( )

Funny, engaging, wonderful prose. If I could write one sentence in my life as clever & witty as Hornby, I'd be a happy woman. ( )

The geek attitude applied to pop music, with some nice generational twists. Not bad, not particularly exciting. ( )

I loved this book. I mean, is it sad to say that there were so many things I connected with in the music/record loving aspects of the book? So, I loved it. The list-making though: not my thing. I think that this is the second book I read that I heard about through music sources not book sources. (The first would be The Commitments.)

A lightweight read with some amusing moments. Rob is a record shop owner whose his long term girlfriend has just left him. He feels like a bit of a loser when he realises that he hasn't really achieved anything in life and that he doesn't really have any friends (post-break up) other than his two employees, Barry and Dick. Rob revisits his top 5 break ups, tracking down old girlfriends and finds out that maybe he should live in the present, not the past or an imagined future. ( )

I think this might be the best possible thing I can say about High Fidelity; when I finished it, I felt vaguely stupid for not having read it sooner.

I can say without exaggeration that at least 100 people have told me that I "must" read this book. Having something of a contrary nature, I have of course avoided it like the plague. It's not that I'm too cool to enjoy things that others have; it's more just that when I'm told over and over how wonderful something is, I find it just doesn't live up to the hype.

But I was in the bookstore a few nights ago and the friend I was with made me buy it over my feeble protests and of course I wound up loving it. It's a fantastic book, and I'm sorry I waited so long. ( )

Unexpected ending, very impressive! ( )

Smart, funny, sad, uplifting, unexpected--like all Hornby's books.

As a pathetic, anti-social, music-obsessed, thirty-something single guy, I definitely identify with this book. Hornby shows the hilarity of the stupid things that guys do as they fumble through relationships, but also ultimately inspires us hapless guys to stick in there, give relationships a chance, and follow a dream.
(contains frequent casual swearing) ( )

I saw this film for the first time years ago and absolutely loved it despite being an American remake of a British set novel (which I usually avoid), but apart from the Polysyllabic Spree (which isn't fiction), I still hadn't gotten around to reading a Nick Hornby novel until this past week. I had high expectations, seeing as the film was so good and the book was so highly recommended by my best friend, and I wasn't disappointed.

Rob is the owner of Championship Vinyl, a record store in London, and we meet him as his girlfriend, Laura, is moving out of their apartment. The story then follows Rob, as he revaluates his life and loves, specifically his failed relationships. High Fidelity is about life, love and music. It is self-effacing yet brash, modern but unpretentious (for the most part!), gently ironic and reassuring. Love (and life for for that matter) isn't all fireworks and string instruments, it takes work, but sometimes there's nothing that can be done to save it...nor should there be.

I was pleasantly surprised (though I'm not sure why) about how much of the original dialogue in this book actually made it into the film. Huge sections of dialogue were used word for word, despite the characters and setting being slightly altered. I was actually tempted to add some of my favourite dialogue to this review, but found there was so much that I couldn't choose! It was hard at times to not picture the actors from the film while reading this book (which is why I always try to read the book first), as although not what you might always expect, they fitted the characters perfectly, adding just enough while retaining Hornby's essence. The novel does make a lot more sense set in nineties London, but the transition from book to screen does seem to have worked, this time anyway!

Highly enjoyable, though I imagine the protagonist Rob and his record shop cohorts Dick and Barry might be a little ashamed of my music collection! I'm a little out of date, and have little interest in much of the pop and rock that passes the airwaves! I'm a more chilled out singer/songwriter kind of girl, though I do have a soft spot for old eighties hits! I will definitely be adding About a Boy to my reading list. ( )

'High Fidelity' is a novel for men. Well, it seems to connect directly to a few men I know, myself included especially. It can be read and enjoyed by women of course, but for them it may become more of a manual, or an explanation of male thoughts, concepts and the way they deal with things.

From sex to music to lists to relationships. It uses the main character, Rob Fleming, as a tool to create this vision of a male torn between deciding on a grown up job, relations with his exes and his current (well as current as it gets) girlfriend and his thoughts on music, lists and so on.

So many times within this book did I find myself agreeing, understanding or thinking that was me exactly, I began to wonder whether I was making up this story as a vision of my own conscience and minset. My girlfriend has watched it and began to understand exactly how I think.

It also propelled my inspiration to open a record store with my best mate, so I can definitely say it has been a positive influence upon my life so far!

Altogether, an amazing read with hilarious, true and sweet moments littered on every page. ( )