Rating: 
Summary: Dreary, at best
Review: Even though I have written dozens of reviews, I have never disparaged a book before. Never. Until now. I read this pathetic piece of rubbish about a year ago and every time I pass it on the shelves I want to punch it. Fat lot of good that'd do. Maybe I'll just burn the copy I have. Not because it's so bad, but because Hornby is clearly a smart guy, can string words together, and yet concocted this god-awful tripe. Frustrating waste of talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Read "High Fidelity" BEFORE the movie comes out- here's why:
Review: John Cusack is co-writing/producing/starring in a highly anticipated movie version of HIGH FIDELITY that will be released very soon, in March 2000, I believe. My suggestion to you - read this book now, then see the movie! I am sure that the movie will be great, I love Cusack and he did a great job producing "Gross Point Blank," a movie I really loved. However, there is much about this book that just can't possibly translate to the big screen as well as it it came across in the book. For instance, the record geeks in the novel are constantly making top ten best lists in the movie, both out loud and in their heads. (List topics range from Seinfeld to Springsteen) How many of those could possibly make the big screen version? The book is also set in London and I hear they have reset the movie version in the states. The British sensibilty is a big part of the book's charm. Again, I must recognize keen anticipation for the big screen version. For one thing, it will be great to hear many of the killer songs referenced in the book, and Cusack will be a charmer as the protagonist Rob. Still, you should read the book before you see the movie as not to lose the memorable experience of reading this funny, relatable charmer of a book. Music geeks will love it. Anyone who digs flipping through stacks of dusty vinyl lps and has made or received a home made mix tape will find it an endearing mirror reflection of our own lives.
Rating: 
Summary: In a word: Perfect
Review: Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" is perfect in the sense that it achieves everything it sets out to do without a single miscue or hitting a wrong note. Hornby has written a brutally honest and funny novel about a perpetual slacker who, if not careful, may miss the great boat of love. A lot of readers will see a bit of themselves in Hornby's book, but that is not the sole reason to read this terrific work. Rather, read "High Fidelity" because it is a well-written and, above all, touching meditation on relationships and love. Once the dust settles on the past decade, I would argue that Hornby's "High Fidelity" will stand as one of the decade's great novels--the quintessential depiction of life and love in the time of grunge.
Rating:
Summary: I've dated this guy SOOO many times!
Review: I've read this book about 15 times now. And its just as funny each time. Poor Rob wth his record collection and his list of ex-girlfriends has become an old friend. There was a woman who reviewed this earlier and said that she couldn't understand why Laura would go back to Rob. She felt that Laura should be dating a partner in her law firm. I loved the ending. Call me a romantic, but I loved the idea that even though they were very different they decided to stay together. This book reminds me of every guy I've ever dated (and I have the mix tapes to prove it) If you don't understand why your boyfriend/husband is the way he is--this book may help. Especially if you are 30-40 and urban. God I hope they don't screw-up the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: Yes, Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" is--I believe--a perfect novel. Perfect in the sense that it hits all the right notes in its rhapsody about the foibles of becoming a man. "High Fidelity" soars from the beginning and ends with a heartwarming flourish so true that it is at once painful and comforting. In Rob, Hornby fashions a complex, likable yet boorish character that almost every man--gay or straight--can empathize with. Once the dust begins to settle on the decade that was the '90's, "High Fidelity" will emerge as the quintessential chronicle of life and love in the time of grunge.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Enjoyable Read
Review: From the very beginning of this book I was completely hooked and couldn't put it down. What I really liked about it was the originality of the story, and the lead character's unusual sense of humor. I was not familiar with this author before and immediately after bought "About a Boy" (also a great read) with plans to purchase all his novels... boy was I disappointed to realize I already had!
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable read
Review: I think I've dated Rob... I'm sure this is the reaction of many women who read this book, a sort of male confessional about what goes on in those post-adolescent addled brains. Very witty prose, and hey, this guy's musical taste is impeccable. All in all, a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: A let down
Review: I was let down by this book. It was hyped up quite a bit by my friends and the reviews. Details said to keep it away from your girlfriend. I was told it was Swingers in book form. However, i found it boring. Not funny, not witty look at relationships, and stale characters. I was very disappointed
Rating:
Summary: Fear that King and Koontz could never generate
Review: It all seems simple enough. The first person narrative through a short period of one man's life. He breaks up with his girl, has a brief affair, examines his work, his friends, his past, and thinks about how to get his girl back. Universal themes? A staple of art and literature? Of course, but why do I find it so damn frightening?High Fidelity revolves around the life and times of Rob Fleming; a man of dazzling normality. Suburban and middle-class, he wears his pleasantly dull personality like a badge of honour. Sure he has lost women because of it, but they have also come in search of it. Tired of hidden depths they want to wallow in the shallows. However Rob is not normal despite his warm, self-depreciating first person. He is twisted and petty and obsessive and as deranged as... well, as you or I. This sordid little tale could be me. (Don't be smug, I bet it could be you too.) "So", you say. "Rob seems alright." Of course he seems all right; he's the one telling the story. Go into any ward for the criminally insane and I'm sure most of them would say they're "alright." For all it's light air and easy going pom charm High Fidelity reminded me more of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange than anything else. Much as Alex covers violence is such a thick layer of his own personality that we forgive him, start to like him. Love him? The same can be said for Rob. Is this the behaviour of, what we are led to believe, the world's most mellow and harmless man: to harass his ex-girl by waiting outside her house late at night? To constantly phone and hang up? All the time knowing you had been unfaithful long before she moved out. Is this normal? Is this right? No, it isn't. But it's exactly what I would do (Have done). To many High Fidelity can be a cautionary tale. Rob's life was taking a well-trodden, but advantageous path to creativity and financial security when he was attending college; then the painful fallout of a mismatched affair sent him spiralling towards hopelessness, inactivity and a life soaked in a fantasy created by pop music (classic soul, funk, R'n'B, ska and punk). This one moment of misery turned him from a would-be somebody to a never-be-anybody. Yes, a cautionary tale to those young enough. A sad document to those too old to change. So never mind your King and your Koontz, their terror is nothing compared to the undiluted panic of reading High Fidelity. When we laugh at the uselessness of Rob's life are we laughing at a character? Are we laughing at our neighbour? Our brother? Are we laughing at ourselves? If we are it's a bitter, tight, evil little laugh and it sure as hell won't get you any girls. Note: As much as this book scared the crackling off my pork I have to give it a huge recommendation purely for the fact it does talk about Solomon Burke, Donny Hathaway's 'The Ghetto', and Peter Gurlanick... Oh dear, should I still care about that sort of stuff?
Rating: 
Summary: Cop Out Ending, Unrealistic Female Characterizations
Review: First, the praise -- there are many, many books out there that try to be funny, and very few that succeed. The sentence to sentence prose here is consistently insightful and witty, and for that reason alone, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an amusing read. I concur with other reviewers that this author is at the top of the heap of this particular genre -- early Martin Amis post-adolescent male, or what you because of a fling with someone with whom he had fantastic sex. Where is this woman in the story? I think it's a flaw that we don't get a flashback here. Even if it was supposed to be fairly meaningless sex, I think we have the right to be there. Because we didn't get a clear picture of the affair or the woman -- it seems like a cop out, or lazy writing, or un-thought out characterization. Second -- as one who has "been there, done that" as a high powered woman paired with an underachieving male she has in some ways outgrown, I can promise you that Laura, a successful lawyer in private practice, would have inevitably been drawn to the more dynamic men in her work environment. The last thing she would have been inclined to do was repeat her mistake by having an affair with a man who was an even bigger hippy loser than her original boyfriend. That was a male ego assuaging device if I ever saw one. Get a massive grip! And while it is quite concievable to me that Laura would return to Rob, as she did, in a vulnerable moment after her father died, and to baldly and rather unflatteringly admit that it was because she couldn't face starting from scratch with someone else, I didn't find the ending satisfying or believable at all. I thought it was sad that the best that Rob's new "club" could do was a Beatles cover band. Likewise, the best Laura seems to settle for is a retread of her early days with Rob, when he was a DJ. The plot ignores the fact that she's moved on in life. A woman who's progressed cannot be happy for long with a man who stays in the same place. Rob's flaw is less his tendency towards sexual infidelity -- after all, we all grew up in a promiscuous age -- but his lack of initiative with his own career. Laura did everything to set up the revival of the club, which struck me as pathetic. I gave this book to my husband to read, thinking it was an acceptable "guy" book for a person who can't stomach many novels, but being a music aficionado, he was appalled at some of Rob's musical likes and dislikes, and at some point the whole main relationship thing got so implausible that he was too nauseated and had to put it down. I managed to finish it, but felt a fake happy ending was tacked on -- I would have preferred more realistic complexity, and the book would have had more staying power if, well, he'd had to see Laura walk off with a senior partner at her firm. At least he would have been forced to grow as a character. The way the book ends, everyone ends right where they started.
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