Rating: 
Summary: Book Great, Tape Awful
Review: Whatever you do, DO NOT(!) rent or buy the Books On Tape version of this great book. The reader does not know when to appropriately emphasize, inflect, or pace the reading. I was extremely disappointed because the book was a blast. Buy the book--ignore the tapes! Let's hope the next reading (HINT, HINT) gets it right.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice to get a guy's point of view...
Review: Its taken me a while to get around to reading this one, but I am glad I finally did. In a literary world full of Bridget Jones and her ilk its nice to see the flip side of the coin. While no where near as funny to me as the books with Brittish female singletons as the central characters this was a very entertaining read. I enjoyed the song references very much and many of them brought back some memories from my own past. What I liked best of all was that in a sexually reversed role from what we normally see, Rob was raised out of his stagnation by Laura, his girlfriend, instead of Laura waiting for Rob to rescue her. Now I am off to watch the movie based on this book and see how they compare.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterical
Review: Great insight into the male thought process,love and relationships. And truly, truly funny.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, painful and above all very recognizable
Review: Rob Fleming is in his thirties and the owner of an obscure music shop with 2 nerdy employees somewhere in north London. When his girlfriend Laura leaves him for the neighbour upstairs he looks back on his life, and especially on (the endings of) his relationships: what did he want from the relationships, when and why did things go wrong, how did or didn't he react. When Laura and Rob get back together, we follow the re-start of their relationship.The book is terribly funny, but also terribly recognizable. I bet most people of Rob's age will recognize at least part of Rob's behaviour as being very similar to how they react in such situations. Thus the book also works as a mirror that leads the readers to reflect on their own way to cope with one of the most important aspects of life: the way in which they interact with other people.
Rating:
Summary: A hilarious romp!
Review: I put off reading anything by Nick Hornby for years and finally I picked up this book at a discounted price and didn't put it down until I reached the last page. It's that good! Humorous, smart and so true. Hornby takes a brutal look at the average unsuccessful Joe with a dream that got sidelined by a desire to grow-up but in fact never did. All through this journey of self-exploration, we find characters that are funny, poignant and sad, trying to realise their dreams, not matter how insignificant they are in the context of our larger material world, in their own distinctly individual ways, be it reviving a career as a disc jockey, singing in a band or simply falling in love. It's such an easy and satisfying read, it's an afternoon well spent.
Rating: 
Summary: High Fidelity - A Rare Case
Review: Alert the presses. For the first time ever, a movie has bested its book. That is correct, the movie High Fidelity beats the book by a long shot. What makes the movie great is the anger and pain John Cusack puts across in is character. Unfortunately, Hornby does not do near that job in his book. Don't get me wrong, it is a well written novel. Being a music fan, I certainly enjoyed the fact that High Fidelity is set in a music store and littered with useless knowledge on every type of music under the sun. One of the many god things about High Fidelity is the humor it manages to mix into a seemingly emotional novel. Hornby delivers a humorous trip into the male mind, something few authors are capable of doing. The great thing about High Fidelity is that every guy in the world feels what is going on. All of us have been hurt by a girl, five girls, or whatever, and, because we have to be tough, crude, and indifferent, no males ever really show their emotions. Nick Hornby gets inside the male mind to show the rest of the world (i.e., Females) just how much they break our hearts. Reading High Fidelity is a hard thing to do if you have just gone through an emotional relationship. I'm sure that writing High Fidelity was equally as hard for Nick Hornby.
Rating: 
Summary: High Fidelity went a bit too long.
Review: High Fidelity started out telling the story of a young man and his two friends that all worked together in a record shop that the main character owned. They were men but sounded more like overgrown teenagers. They thought they all wanted to meet the right woman but when any woman entered their lives they immediately wondered what they might be missing out on. None of the characters had done much growing by the end and quite frankly it all got pretty boring and I was rushing for the ending. You get a feeling that the author really has a talent for writing but hasn't quite reached his potential. I had planned on giving this book three stars but that seemed a bit much. I read this book because I had previously read " How To Be Good" and I wouldn't recommmend either.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: "High Fidelity" the book wasn't as good as "High Fidelity" the movie. I really don't know what it was about the book that I didn't like as much, but something just wasn't there. Maybe it was the lack of the actors from the movie that did it in. It was still good, but I wish I read the book first.
Rating:
Summary: Comic Insights Into The Male Mind
Review: For those of us in our 30s, it is an often trying period if you find yourself not married and/or not without a family of your own. Contemporary literature and the movies have certainly given audiences plenty of tales of women during this time of alleged life "crisis." Thankfully, we have Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" to give us some rare insight into a man's mind. While reading this novel, one can not help think that *any* guy reading this book could not help but have a smile of recognition come across his face. Through the eyes of record store owner Rob Fleming, readers get a comic look at how one man deals with life, love, and relationships when his long-time live-in girlfriend, Laura, leaves him for another man. Some readers will be frustrated that Rob seems to be not nearly as passionate towards his girlfriend as he is with music and his record shop. But again, this is arguably an undeniable male trait (and I am sure infuriating, in the eyes of many women) when it comes to relationships. Rob's music and record shop could easily be substituted for sports or cars for another guy. I am not sure if Rob makes the "right" relationship issue in the end, but as with all good literature, it is a good sign when an author engages us in such an internal debate. A warning to those who may have seen or are familiar with the movie version starring John Cusack, Hollywood moved the novel's locale from London to Chicago. The book definitely has British wit and slang. Nevertheless, "High Fidelity" is an enjoyable read that both sexes should enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Quite good
Review: I would give this book five stars except for three things: first, the book is slow in the beginning, second, I don't think that Hornby says anything particularly original or goes as deep as he could have in terms of the analysis of men in the nineties and the whole male-female relationships, and third, the music as metaphor for life thing didn't work as well for me as it might have for others because like Laura I hadn't heard of half the musicians mentioned. That said, overall I liked the novel. I loved that the chapters were short, so if I didn't have time to sit and read for a long period, I could still read some (I'm one of those people who doesn't like to leave a book part way through a chapter). Even though I'm a woman I could relate to Rob; my obsession is books and movies. Rob is a commitmentphobic man who keeps messing up his relationship because he's afraid to grow up. He thinks he's going to miss something if he doesn't keep his options open, so he ends at 36 with nothing much to show for his life. I found myself wanting to strangle Rob, yet liking him in spite of myself, probably because I know so many guys - and women, actually - like him. The book doesn't have alot of amazing new insights, but the characters are fun, the pace is great, and there is so much I could relate to, even as a woman. I laughed and cried and wanted to scream at Rob at times. Must also say I hated the movie - in the movie I didn't buy the Rob/Laura reconciliation, but in the book it makes more sense. I reccommend this book to anyone in their 20s or 30s who are trying to figure out what it's all about, to music fans, and anyone who loves a good laugh.
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