High Fidelity

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (1995)

I've been reading Nick Hornby for years and even saw him speak several years ago (I think around the release of Juliet, Naked). But, embarrassingly, I hadn't yet read High Fidelity or Fever Pitch, perhaps his two best-known novels. I began rectifying that this week with a beat-up paperback from the library.

High Fidelity is about a thirty-something guy named Rob Fleming who runs a record store and has just screwed up the most major relationship of his life. It is clear he has not changed or matured since he was a teenager, and he mucks up every interpersonal situation he is confronted with, while being painfully aware he is doing so.

Rob is the kind of guy who just sort of lets life happen around him. For instance, he hired two guys to work part-time at the record shop and they started showing up every day and basically working full-time and Rob just didn't say anything about it. He's also emotionally immature, as proven by his behavior towards his ex-girlfriend Laura after she moves out of their flat and into the new flat of their former neighbor.

Some find Rob unlikeable, but as with all Nick Hornby's characters, I could totally sympathize with him. Yeah, he's far from perfect, but he's so earnest and honest (with the reader, not with the people around him) that I can't help but like him. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with him, but the people around him aren't perfect either, including Laura. That is what is so wonderfully compelling about this novel though - everyone is realistically screwed up. Of course, this is all wrapped up in Hornby's trademark humor, which I think is another part of what makes Rob so palatable.

It's been quite a while since I've read a Hornby novel (the last was Juliet, Naked in 2009) so it's hard to compare this one with the others. But it has everything I remember from his other novels - the neurosis, the angst, the humor - so I think it's comparable to them. It was sort of a strange choice since he has a new book out that I haven't read yet, but I've heard mixed reviews of it. Has anyone read Funny Girl? What did you think?

More Baths, Less Talking

More Baths, Less Talking by Nick Hornby (2012)

This is Hornby's fourth collection of essays from his books column in The Believer. As in previous installments, each chapter represents a month (sometimes two) and begins by listing "Books Bought" and "Books Read," followed by an essay on that month's reading.

Hornby's taste is eclectic, but no matter what kind of book he's talking about, his commentary is sure to be entertaining. Even tomes like Austerity Britain, his opener, are fodder for interesting discussion in his hands. From dense nonfiction to children's books, every reader will see something that sparks his or her interest. There are also plenty that I'm glad he read so I don't have to.

It's nice to read his thoughts on books I've already read (like Tinkers by Paul Harding and The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman), as well as books I keep meaning to get to - Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson or The Fear Index by Robert Harris. And if a British person can highly recommend Game Change, a book about the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, then surely I should finally get around to reading that as well.

One of my favorite things about Nick Hornby is how unpretentious he is. His tastes run the gamut from literary award-winners to thrillers and he finds something of value in pretty much everything he picks up. Plus, he comes clean about being too distracted to read anything during the World Cup.

As much as I love reading about books, it almost doesn't matter which ones he's talking about because the real value of these essays is Hornby's writing. More than anything, it made me want to read more of his books.

Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby (2008)

My book group recently chose to read Nick Hornby's third and final collection of his monthly Stuff I've Been Reading column from The Believer magazine. I thoroughly enjoyed his first two and this third volume did not disappoint. For those who are unfamiliar, he begins each column with a list of the books he bought that month and a list of the books he read that month. Sometimes there is overlap. Then he discusses the books in an essay, and I add more titles than I can ever read in my lifetime to my Goodreads list.

Some of the books discussed in this volume include The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta, On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, and most memorably, Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Hornby urges his readers to go with their instincts on this last one - if you don't think you want to read it, don't. In describing just how difficult a book it is to read, he says  "Sometimes you feel like begging the man to use his last bullet on you, rather than the boy. The boy is a fictional creation, after all, but you're not. You're really suffering."

I love Nick Hornby for many reasons, but I think most of all for his unpretentiousness. In this volume he has discovered young adult literature, which of course endears him to me even more, but what he likes about it is that it's so incredibly readable. He also discovers the Alex Awards from YALSA, given to adult books with appeal to teens. As Hornby describes it, "a list of ten books that aren't boring." Hornby read and enjoyed Skellig by David Almond, Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, just to name a few of his young adult choices.

Another takeaway for me from this book was what he said about reading from a list. He came across some book to the effect of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and says "reading begets reading - that's sort of the point of it, surely? - and anybody who never deviates from a set list of books is intellectually dead anyway." I have a fairly lengthy list of books to read and too often I consider it more of an assignment that I need to get through than a list of interesting sounding titles I don't want to forget. Hornby's words were a good reminder to deviate from that list and read whatever I feel like at the moment. I certainly don't want to be among the intellectually dead.

And this book surely begets more reading - I've already read David Almond's Skellig (in one sitting, no less). I'll tell you all about it soon.