So what the heck am I doing reading good old entertaining fiction? When I should be concentrating all of my efforts now on setting up a half-decent business, e.g. if I happen to have any time left over at the end of the day to read books then it should have something to do with book-keeping, management, marketing or whatever. Heck, I am not some humanoid machine purring endlessly over there in the corner now am I? Tough luck, I need to relax once in a while. I cannot help it if I am addicted to good books now, can I?

For some reason I have read Hornby's books backwards, that is in reverse chronological order to publication dates. The third book High Fidelity I ended up reading by him happens to be his very first book, the one which got him famous in the first place. Not as good as the other two: About a Boy (made into a film with Hugh Grant) and How to be Good. But if you can get beyond the British slang and the pop music trivia it can be quite entertaining. Even some one as boring as I had a good laugh during some of the more hilarious scenes. I recommend it highly for the beach where you just need to distract your mind, not think too much, and enjoy the ocean breeze.

If you are wondering what the book is really about, here's a generic objective kind of review I found on the Amazon.com web site:

"For Rob Fleming, thirty-five years old, a pop addict and owner of a failing record shop, these are the sort of questions that need an answer, and soon. His girlfriend has just left him. Can he really go on living in a poky flat surrounded by vinyl and CDs or should he get a real home, a real family and a real job? Perhaps most difficult of all, will he ever be able to stop thinking about life in terms of the All Time Top Five bands, books, films, songs - even now that he's been dumped again, the top five break-ups?"