欧宝娱乐

As a fellow music geek I didn't feel like reading this book for some reason. I don't know why? I saw the film some years ago, and thought so-so.

Does it capture that working in a record store feeling?

As alwasy, Tosh, I think your instincts were right. This book is basically crap but the music store stuff and music geekiness all around is kinda fun. But honestly, I don't think you would like this book. It's idiotic!

Aaaaaa. I've been working like crazy and missed seeing Control. Damn! I'm a huge Joy Division fan as well and really wanted to see it. Oh well. I'll rent it... I know Tosh really liked it too.

Yeah, I gave High Fidelity 2 stars because despite the complete stupidity I have to confess that I did enjoy all the music geekiness of it. But I doubt I would read any of his other books.

I'll have to think about this. I saw the movie and thought the characters were intolerable stunted adolescents. A friend recommended the book and I liked it much more than I expected, even though the film is actually pretty faithful to it... And yes, I'm a music geek and closet romantic - and when I ran across one of those dopey "Which John Cusack are you?" tests a few years ago, this character is the one that came up...
I've only read one other Hornby novel - "How to Be good" - which I seem to be a minority in liking.

Well, this is my take on it - I actually did enjoy the book quite a bit. The movie was OK but despite being pretty faithful to the book I felt it somehow missed that really geeky enthusiasm for music and the fun of working in a record store - I worked in a record store for three years. I still think it may have been the best job I ever had except for the pay...

My main criticism of the book is that if the main character had been obsessed with something else - say cars, or anything that wasn't something I was obsessed with myself - then the book would have been intolerable - at least for me. The characters were basically pretty flat. The story was pretty standard - immature guy screws up relationship. So if it wasn't for the constant referencing of some of my favorite music and the depiction of the crazy fun of working in a place where you're talking about music all day, well then, the book really would have sucked! But thankfully, it WAS about music so the book was definitely fun!

I haven't really thought about whether the musical name-dropping was integral to the book - since I disagreed with a lot of his taste. (When I reviewed the movie, I accused the producers of a lapse of taste in having the Cusack character go wild over a Peter Frampton song - and was surprised to see that the book specifically mentions it....) I see the obsession with music as something of a character flaw, a way of keeping the real world at an emotional distance and reliving the past.
I've never worked in a record store - (I've applied for jobs in them..long ago), but i have a fovorite memory of walking into one in the early 70s as the employees were quizzing each other on their memory of Album label numbers: "Columbia MS019700?"
I know that at least one other Hornby novel, "Fever Pitch", deals with a character's obsession - in this case, with soccer, but not having read it (or seen either of the two movies based on it), I can't really say much.

Oh, Peter Frampton - yeah, I forgot about that - I'll pass on that as well!

Love your record store story - yeah, that's not far from what it's like.

And I agree that the music obsession was most assuredly a character flaw. But I'm definitely much more likely to fall for a guy with the music obsession character flaw than the sports obsession character flaw - but yeah, they are essentially the same flaw. And eventually I'd probably dump both guys... As with the book - fun for a while but doesn't really stick with me.

I suppose that any obsession/love brings along its own cultural baggage. The interests of the sports fanatic carries various degrees of competitiveness, "home team" preferences, nostalgia for various famous plays and victories, etc. "High Fidelity" would almost certainly be a different story if the hero (I can't recall his name right now) were an opera fan or a comic book geek, but I think its his pop-music obsession - with all of its related nostalgia - that adds to the sense that he's stuck in adolesence. I suppose the same could be said if he were a sports fan, but the tone would be different.
And as for preferring the book or music lover to the sports fan or Trekkie or whatever obsession you name, I suppose thats a subjective thing.
Are any of you familiar with Simon Pegg's tv series "Spaced"? It's an excellent picture of a 30-ish man obsessed with comic books and "Star Wars" and all of the cultural artifacts of his youth - and a pretty sharp critique of his own generation. he could easily be a distant relative of Hornby's hero.