Rating: 
Summary: Top Five All-Time, Desert Island Book
Review: High Fidelity is a hilarious and witty take on the single 30-something male with "what's it all mean" issues. Full of biting humor and shocking realizations of what's really inside a man's head. I happen to think this novel is the perfect insider guide for a female! Other than that, it's refreshing and funny, wild and crazy, a delicious romp through the male psyche. And Barry and Dick were like the best friends I never had. I would love to hang out with THEM for a day! Also, the movie is an excellent companion to the book. It's almost word for word, and understandably so--there was nothing to change or perfect upon in this novel. High Fidelity will have you falling off your chair laughing. And I recommend watching the movie, too, because Jack Black is the perfect Barry. A wonderful reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: world is a small place...
Review: ... and we all resemble each other in a way. High Fidelity is a portrait of our generation: thirty-somethings with a real passion for music and some difficulties in relationships, whose main concern is facing adulthood. What I like about Hornby's works - apart from the obvious fact that they are extremely enjoyable - is that there is a little bit of everyone I know in them. Me included. So, no matter if you live in London, New York, Berlin or Milan, you feel you're laughing about yourself, your friends, your partner. At the same time, you are kind of forced to think...
Rating: 
Summary: If this is a comedy we're all in trouble.
Review: I am amazed by the number of people who said, "The funniest book I've ever read!" while I thought it somber, even depressing at times. It did indeed possess comic elements, but to label this a comedy is missing the point. Rather it is a four-hour therapy session(or however long it takes you to read this book), poking and prodding the ins and outs of relationships between men and women. The book was not so much eye-opening as it was startlingly accurate. Rob is without a doubt one of the most concrete characters to come out of recent fiction. Still, I felt that the author let us down at the end, in not having Rob stay true to form. I can say no more without spoiling. All in all: half a thumb up.
Rating:
Summary: Great writing and character development
Review: An excellent story - I feel like I know the protagonist better than some of my friends. Entertaining insight into one possible male psyche.
Rating:
Summary: Music and literature, what a concept!
Review: Wow! High Fidelity is one of the funniest and most musical novels I have ever read! This was book was given to me by a friend, and I marvel at the great storytelling and knowledge of music. I even listened to some of the songs that were mentioned in the novel. Songs I haven't heard in such a long time! The book talks about relationships from a male standpoint and I could relate to his romantic escapades. I will definitely look for more work from this great author.
Rating:
Summary: Uncomfortably true, bitingly funny
Review: I was recommended this book when a friend of mine told me to read it; he then began this strange habit of asking me to list my top 5 favorite movies, songs, books and so on. After reading the book, I began to understand his obsession and even (I admit with embarrassment) began to take part in the fun. Horby's portrayal of Rob (frighteningly my own namesake!) seemed just a bit too familir to me. Not just because it reminded me of me, but so many other of my friends. The book IS funny, yet tinged with a sadness too. It was pathetic sad, and yes, funny too when Rob went to visit all his past girlfriends to find out what went wrong. This brand of dark humour perhaps was too much for me - at times I almost found the novel humourously bleak. Nonethless, Horby succeeds in creating orginal, funny, and , unfortunately, believable characters. A highly recommended book.
Rating:
Summary: A book about everyone
Review: I find it hard to think of a book which out-thrills "High Fidelity". The reason is obvious: Reading the book is like reading a book about yourself. Every guy out there has gone through the dubious pleasure of being dumped. Everyone has gone through the inevitable mental analysis that bombards the head when you get dumped. And thus, when you get to read about another guy who suffered through the same ritual, the knowledge that you are not alone in this world is the fuel with which the book works. The element of identification is enhanced by the fact the book's hero is quite a common guy. Sure, he has an idiosyncrasy or two, but don't we all? And don't we all love music? And don't we all seem to totally fail in understanding the inner workings of women's mind at some crucial points in time? Aren't we all afraid of being alone, and don't we all have dreams we'd just love to fulfill? Out of all people, I think women should be the first to get their hands on a copy of the book. The reason for that is obvious as well: Never did I encounter a book which describes so well what goes on inside a man's mind. Books about men showing off their emotions are rare; and this one is a true gem. Still, the book is not perfect. I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but I the sweeter than sweet ending is somewhat disturbing: I've been dumped so many times, yet I've never managed a comeback. Or is it just me? Anyway, this little quirk should not bother anyone from reading one of the funniest, touching and personal books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: For the Tape Makers
Review: Anyone who has ever made a compilation tape for their girlfriend (instead of actually expressing their feelings direclty) will enjoy this book. The British slang gets a bit thick, but overall a good airplane read, with a half-dozen LOL's. Don't expect too much insight into the human soul. I just saw the movie and it's a bit disappointing. It glosses over the personal complexities that make these characters interesting. Tom Robbins' performance saves an otherwise dull adaptation.
Rating:
Summary: sly, snarky Four Weddings-style humor
Review: Rob Fleming, a 35 year old Londoner, is extremely average, but the story he has to tell is unusually witty & insightful, especially in his assessment of the mysterious relations between men and women: Read any women's magazine and you'll see the same complaint over and over again: men--those little boys ten or twenty or thirty years on--are hopeless in bed. They are not interested in 'foreplay'; they have no desire to stimulate the erogenous zones of the oppositre sex; they are selfish, greedy, clumsy, unsophisticated. These complaints, you can't help feeling, are kind of ironic. Back then, all we wanted was foreplay, and girls weren't interested. They didn't want to be touched, caressed, stimulated, aroused; in fact, they used to thump us if we tried. It's not really surprising, then, that we're not much good at all that. We spent two or three long and extremely formative years being told very forcibly not even to think about it. Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, foreplay changes from being something that boys want to do and girls don't, to something that women want and men can't be bothered with. ... The perfect match, if you ask me, is between the Cosmo woman and the fourteen-year old boy. and the cultural importance of pop music: People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands--literally thousands--of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music hgas caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living the unhappy lives. and the vital interstices where men and women & music meet, as we see when he asks his girlfriend one of the great questions in the history of the opposing genders: How can you like Art Garfunkel and Solomon Burke? It's like saying you support the Israelis and the Palestinians. The book is filled with this kind of sly, snarky Four Weddings-style humor, perhaps too full. I found 300 pages of the fundamentally immature Rob to be a tad excessive. But in the end, when he learns that: it's not what you like but what you're like, we can't help but feel happy for his triumph. GRADE: A-
Rating:
Summary: Worth the read, but...
Review: As I began reading this book I felt a connection to the Rob Flemming character I can't remember feeling with any other. I felt for sure, this was going to be a real "everyman", pro-guy, kinda book. And it seemed to do it without disparaging women (too much). So I was disappointed when the plot became a cliché: the one about the guy who has an irrational fear of commitment and he only appreciates what (and who) he has when it's (she's) gone. And if the grammar in the previous sentence annoyed you, don't buy this book: it's a snapshot of Hornby's style. Still, the book is filled with humorous characters and witty observations about the little nuances in relationships and sex.
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