High Fidelity

Name: High Fidelity
ISBN: 9781573225519

by Nick Hornby · first published 1995

7mentions

5recommended by

7HN commenters

2009–2023first – last mentioned

71% recommend29% neutral

Why HN recommends it

A funny first-person novel about a record-shop owner who examines his love life and music tastes. Its voice and wit reward rereading, with the prose offering more pleasure than the plot.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Fiction & Literature

Nick Hornby's first novel, an international bestseller and instantly recognized by critics and readers alike as a classic, helps to explain men to women, and men to men. Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's hardly surprising that his girlfriend decides that enough is enough.

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View on Open Library ISBN 9781573225519

Mentions per year

What Hacker News says

scorchio · Dec 23, 2015 · Recommends

…in Rising Asia 9/10 Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗
jseliger · Oct 12, 2009 · Recommends

I listed six here: http://jseliger.com/top-five-books : These books are worth reading immediately: 1. Lord of the Rings 2. All the King’s Men 3. High Fidelity 4. Get Shorty 5. Cryptonomicon 6. Almost anything by Robertson Davies, though I recommend starting with The Deptford Trilogy and skipping The Salterton Trilogy
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗
flomincucci · Jun 3, 2011 · Recommends

…Loser by Thomas Bernhard. Cruel, repetitive, ironic... effing brilliant. It's about three pianists - one of them it's Glenn Gould, and how meeting him ruined the life of the other two. Currently reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I can't be objetive about him, I simple love it. (The movie is great, also)
on “Ask HN: What books are you reading” ↗
martythemaniak · Dec 23, 2015 · Recommends

…Rising Asia 9/10 Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda -…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗
kristiandupont · Jul 12, 2023 · Recommends

The book is competing with Nick Hornby's High Fidelity for the book I've re-read the most times. I absolutely love it. And, I agree: the plot is barely worth mentioning. In fact, I once started watching the movie and stopped halfway through because it was…
on “Milan Kundera, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ Novelist, Dies at 94” ↗
e12e · Apr 24, 2019 · Mentions

…the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?" - Nick Hornby, High Fidelity Also relevant from the book: "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…
on “Why Do People with Depression Like Listening to Sad Music?” ↗
huxley · Jun 5, 2012 · Mentions

Nick Hornby wrote about the essentially sad nature of pop music in his novel "High Fidelity" (1995): "What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about…
on “Is popular music becoming sadder?” ↗