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I kept waiting for something to happen. But I think that's sort of the point. My expectations were probably skewed because I like "High Fidelity" so much.
This was an absolutely charming book. Hornby does a wonderful job capturing the "intense" nature of certain music fans, and tells a great coming of age story. Even if the main characters are middle aged.
Wonderfully flawed, endearing characters. Funny and thought-provoking, especially about music and how it affects us emotionally and the resulting adulation we impose on the artists. Definitely a good listen.
FAVORITE LINES:
“For the best part of 40 years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true.”
“One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.”
“She stopped typing. If she’d been using pen and paper, she would have screwed the paper up in disgust, but there wasn’t a satisfying equivalent with email, seeing as everything was designed to stop you making a mistake. She needed a fuck-it key, something that made a satisfying ka-boom noise when you thumped it.”
FAVORITE LINES:
“For the best part of 40 years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true.”
“One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.”
“She stopped typing. If she’d been using pen and paper, she would have screwed the paper up in disgust, but there wasn’t a satisfying equivalent with email, seeing as everything was designed to stop you making a mistake. She needed a fuck-it key, something that made a satisfying ka-boom noise when you thumped it.”
I always want to love a new Hornby book... This one caught & released my attention too many times.
The ending was spectacularly funny. And I love Nick Hornby to death. He did a exhibit a little bit of Zadie Smith syndrome--namely, being an English writer with a bad ear who tries to write Americans but can't actually mimic the way that we speak differently, but he was much more accurate and not insufferably incorrect like Smith.
Love it. That is all.
Love it. That is all.
I would have done 3 1/2 stars. Really wanted to know what he wrote in the email to Annie
This book was very enjoyable. I have read a couple other Nick Hornby books, and this one was right up there for me.
As an obsessive music fan I found this book very enjoyable and funny. It was a good light read. I consumed it very quickly.
As an obsessive music fan I found this book very enjoyable and funny. It was a good light read. I consumed it very quickly.
This book was interesting. I didn't know what to think when it started. It seemed like it might drag too much for my taste. I'm also never sure about different voices for different characters because it never works as well as it seems like it should. However, I got caught up in the story pretty quickly. Duncan and Annie have been together for 15 years, not from any great passion, but mostly for convenience and ease. Duncan is obsessed with an American singer/songwriter from the 80s named Tucker Crowe, who hasn't done anything new in years. A previously unreleased album of studio recordings of Tucker's most famous album is released and Duncan thinks it is amazing, while Annie thinks it is a poor representation of an incredible album. She writes a review for a website and Tucker reads it and responds. Thus begins the "relationship" of Tucker and Annie, which is definitely not straight forward or traditional. The story has some very funny parts and some parts that made me shake my head. It was enjoyable and the ending made me very happy.
While not entirely what I expected, I ended up really enjoying this book that revolves around the choices in life, to "settle", what it means to accomplish things and generally finding meaning during one's mid-life crisis.
This was a fun read, in part because I tend to be a sucker for novels set in England. However I will say the ending did come a little close to unresolved land, but not so close that I didn't appreciate it.
This was a fun read, in part because I tend to be a sucker for novels set in England. However I will say the ending did come a little close to unresolved land, but not so close that I didn't appreciate it.