# Any Nick Hornby fans here?



## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

He's probably one of my favorite authors of all time. _About A Boy_ and _A Long Way Down_ are just superb - the funniest books about the saddest subjects possible. I just got a Kindle - can't wait to get his next on it.


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## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

I *love *his stuff! The only time I've ever been disappointed was when he wrote the screenplay for An Education. I really did not like that movie at all. Other than that, I've loved everything. _Juliet Naked_ was a wonderful book!


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

I got into him with 'Fever Pitch' --- 'How to be Good' is fantastic as well.

You might like my book as it's been compared to his but I'm no shamesless plugger so it is just a suggestion.

just type Love, Sex and cava into goolge and you'll find it--alternatively read this:

http://www.authonomy.com/books/21671/love-sex-and-tesco-s-finest-cava/

Sorry if this offends it was not my intention but the book is very Hornbyesque(is that a word)

Love Cussak and Black in High Fidelity as well

Steve


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## CNDudley (May 14, 2010)

Just saw Fever Pitch on Instant Play. I had no idea it was based on a Nick Hornby novel. In fact, I think I've only ever seen the movies based on his works. Would you say the movies are well-adapted, or is it a case where the books are a zillion times better?


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## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

I actually could not get into Fever Pitch, for some reason. Most of the others I love, except for the one book that was written from the female perspective a few years back, I forget the name - not that good, but then he came back with A Long Way Down.

I think the books kick the crap out of the movies. High Fidelity would have been fine, except they moved it to Chicago. Ridiculous. Keep it in London!

I don't mind shameless self promotion - I'll check out that book!


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

Yeah fever pitch is a bit of a male footy thing but historically so important

I think they moved that to Boston and changed it a bit in the film

I think his best is high fidelity though.

Appeals to the male list everything in me

S


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## JackNolte (Oct 28, 2010)

Hornby's one of my favorite authors.  I wasn't a huge fan of A Long Way Down, but all the others have been excellent.


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## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

I also liked the movie High Fidelity.  But then again, I'm a huge John Cusack fan!


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

i read the collection of his essays about songs - i thought he did a great job and turned a few great phrases in the one about suicide's 'frankie teardrop' ... and also liked how he wrote about patti smith's 'pissin' in a river'


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

I too am a massive Cussack fan --I think he's the one bloke who could turn me

S

Anyone remind me who was in that Boston version of fever pitch?

I could IMDB it but am too lazy


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## ajhunter (Aug 23, 2010)

I have read _Long Way Down_ and really really liked it. High Fidelity is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have the book (DTB) but have never gotten around to reading it.


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## Rory Miller (Oct 21, 2010)

I was an obsessive Hornby fan back in the day.  Some things I want to add...

1. The Books are WAY better than the films (which are generally very good too) because of the way Hornby turns a phrase like no other.  However, his earlier works were peppered with Brit-slang so you might find yourself a bit lost at times.

2. Fever Pitch has been made into two movies.  The Americanized baseball film (which was fortunate because they set it around the Red Sox and they won the title while the film was in production so they changed their ending to reflect that) and the British versions which while being more true to the original book I think they added a lot to the romantic sub-plot.  You'll sort of recognize the British actor playing the lead, Colin somethingorother.

3. As a soccer fan, Fever Pitch is probably the most important book written in the fan genre.  It launched so many other fanlit books. I would say it influenced my writing and my works but I in no way equate anything I've written to his fantastic work.

4. Hornby contributed lyrics to a cd with Ben Folds recently.  He also helped bring "An Education" to film, but I'm not sure if he was a producer or what.  I haven't heard it but I'd like to.


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## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

Interesting about Fever Pitch. I should revisit it. I just couldn't get into it, which makes me wonder if not being a soccer fan (I don't dislike it or anything, I just don't follow it) keeps it from being interesting... though it could be a failure on my part!


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

RorySM said:


> 4. Hornby contributed lyrics to a cd with Ben Folds recently. He also helped bring "An Education" to film, but I'm not sure if he was a producer or what. I haven't heard it but I'd like to.


oh i forgot about that: i heard hornby and folds on the radio talking about the album and their collaboration and commenting on some of the songs. it was great! they wrote one about a famous nashville songwriter - wrote suspicion for elvis, among other hits - who had to use a wheelchair and lived in the lobby of a seedy hotel. folds explained he used this fast piano rhythm to make you feel that the world was going by quickly - like he imagined it would be for a guy in a wheelchair. it was a really interesting song, you should hear it. they also did 'levi johnson's blues,' which was a riot - the chorus was a quote from levi's facebook page. folds explained that he liked getting the lyrics and constructing a song out of them because that's how elton john did it, which leads to more complicate and longer melody lines.


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## HelenSmith (Mar 17, 2010)

Colin Firth was in Fever Pitch - you might remember him from the TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice if you're a Jane Austen fan.


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

To be an Arsenal supporter is to like Hornby. Rory said it best (he does that a lot), but when I read Fever Pitch two years ago, it made me feel like a kid again, following the Red Sox as passionately as I do. Of course, let's not discuss last season, please. Or the year before that.


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## Mark Adair (Dec 4, 2010)

Just finished High Fidelity, Kindle version. I'd read the book version before. Pure joy.


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## Lalalaconnectthedots (Dec 5, 2010)

I count him among my favorites. Loved High Fidelity and am reading Juliet Naked while not reading other things (I tend to read numerous books at once). Perhaps one of my favorites is Long Way Down, though. I just loved the characters. 

He's an author that I'd read any novel he wrote just to hear him tell a story. His characters are so rich and just spring off the page.


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

Mark Adair said:


> Just finished High Fidelity, Kindle version. I'd read the book version before. Pure joy.


I totally agree

I think it's his best in my humble...

S


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## KBR (Nov 18, 2010)

I love Hornby's books. His style has really matured over the years and I think his books are getting better and better. _Juliet Naked is fantastic._


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## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

KBR said:


> I love Hornby's books. His style has really matured over the years and I think his books are getting better and better. _Juliet Naked is fantastic.
> _


_
I loved Juliet Naked. I think my favorite is A Long Way Down, overall, but they're all so good._


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## WestofMars (Sep 16, 2009)

I am eager to read Juliet Naked. I loved Long Way Down, even though it's a departure from my norm -- which could be exactly why I liked it so much.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

HelenSmith said:


> Colin Firth was in Fever Pitch - you might remember him from the TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice if you're a Jane Austen fan.


Loved both versions. I'm a huge Colin Firth fan, so the British version ranks right up there. Having grown up going the Kansas City A's games, especially when the Red Sox were in town, I became a true Tony Conigliaro fan. I loved the shrine to Tony C. in the American version of Fever Pitch.

I also love About a Boy. Excellent book and very good movie.


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## Lalalaconnectthedots (Dec 5, 2010)

Cavaguy said:


> I too am a massive Cussack fan --I think he's the one bloke who could turn me
> 
> S
> 
> ...


I believe it was Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, right?


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## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

Cindy416 said:


> Loved both versions. I'm a huge Colin Firth fan, so the British version ranks right up there. Having grown up going the Kansas City A's games, especially when the Red Sox were in town, I became a true Tony Conigliaro fan. I loved the shrine to Tony C. in the American version of Fever Pitch.
> 
> I also love About a Boy. Excellent book and very good movie.


I assume they changed the end of AAB because they couldn't talk about Kurt Cobain in the movie? I thought they did a good job of coming up with something different that still worked.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

Blodwyn said:


> I assume they changed the end of AAB because they couldn't talk about Kurt Cobain in the movie? I thought they did a good job of coming up with something different that still worked.


That is the assumption that I made.


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## Shandril19 (Aug 18, 2009)

Another HUGE Hornby fan here....

I attending a reading he did for his YA novel Slam.  Enjoyed that as well and really enjoyed getting to chat with him for a while.


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## Blodwyn (Oct 13, 2010)

I love seeing all the love for Nick on here. Only a couple people I know IRL have heard of him.


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## Rory Miller (Oct 21, 2010)

I actually got a few people IRL (it took me a while to figure out what that meant--which shows how new I am to these type of boards) back in college into Hornby.  High Fidelty usually gets any guy into Hornby and About a Boy and How to Be Good did the same for the ladies.

I agree that High Fidelity seems to be Hornby at his best.  I think it just might be the way he phrases things in it and I'm sure he didn't want to use his best phrases over and over again in later books.

I've read a lot of soccer books the last couple years (40 or so?), and many might have well as been called "My Personal Fever Pitch," which is an honor of sorts I guess.  If you are a soccer fan and liked Fever Pitch, I can say that Stephen Foster's "She Stood There Laughing" is by far the best.  He's a Stoke City fan, which is like being a Kansas City Royals fan in America.  In fact, at one point he says something about Hornby and Arsenal along the lines of "If Hornby wants real pain, he should be a Stoke City fan."  The irony is that Foster doesn't like Stoke's new coach, Tony Pulis and says he doesn't really know what he's doing... then in the three years after writing that Pulis lead them to two promotion and took them into the Premier League (top league) and kept them there!  Imagind if a Red Sox fan wrote something similar about the coach of the Sox in 2003 before everything turned around!  It's still a great book.

Any suggestions of authors of fiction that remind you guys of Hornby?  What was it the britpress called his genre, Ladfiction or something?


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

RorySM said:


> If you are a soccer fan and liked Fever Pitch, I can say that Stephen Foster's "She Stood There Laughing" is by far the best. He's a Stoke City fan, which is like being a Kansas City Royals fan in America. In fact, at one point he says something about Hornby and Arsenal along the lines of "If Hornby wants real pain, he should be a Stoke City fan."


OK, Rory, watch it. I've been a Kansas City A's and then Royals fan as long as I can remember.  I know exactly the feeling that Foster is describing, and it is a feeling unlike any other in sports. (The sport/team can be changed, but the feeling remains. As a fan, you never give up on your team.)


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

Blodwyn said:


> Interesting about Fever Pitch. I should revisit it. I just couldn't get into it, which makes me wonder if not being a soccer fan (I don't dislike it or anything, I just don't follow it) keeps it from being interesting... though it could be a failure on my part!


I loved the book, and I'm a Spurs fan (Arsenal's staunch rivals), so if I can enjoy it, anyone can!


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

TheRiddler said:


> I loved the book, and I'm a Spurs fan (Arsenal's staunch rivals), so if I can enjoy it, anyone can!


Welcome to the knock-out stages. I'm sure you won't get far, mate. 

JFV -- An Arsenal supporter

FYI: We have a thread in Not Quite Kindle "The 606 KB style." Come over and join in.


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

PersephoneLives said:


> I believe it was Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, right?


Sorry it was I was thinking High Fidelity; I love Cussack and black in that moview


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

RorySM said:


> I actually got a few people IRL (it took me a while to figure out what that meant--which shows how new I am to these type of boards) back in college into Hornby. High Fidelty usually gets any guy into Hornby and About a Boy and How to Be Good did the same for the ladies.
> 
> I agree that High Fidelity seems to be Hornby at his best. I think it just might be the way he phrases things in it and I'm sure he didn't want to use his best phrases over and over again in later books.
> 
> ...


It's called lad-lit---I don't think i'm allowed to say that's what mines tagged as--sorry if I'm not


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## WestofMars (Sep 16, 2009)

Rory, I just read Louise Wener's Goodnight, Steve McQueen. The blurb on the front cover likens it to High Fidelity. Might help fill that void you asked about...


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## Beth O (Jul 9, 2010)

You can add me to the list of Nick Hornby fans.  I loved "How to be Good," "About a Boy" (although I have a hard time reading it without thinking about the movie) and "Juliet Naked."  I wasn't a huge fan of "A Long Way Down," but I think it was because of the subject matter, even if it did end on a positive note.


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

Beth O said:


> You can add me to the list of Nick Hornby fans. I loved "How to be Good," "About a Boy" (although I have a hard time reading it without thinking about the movie) and "Juliet Naked." I wasn't a huge fan of "A Long Way Down," but I think it was because of the subject matter, even if it did end on a positive note.


I still haven't read Juliet Naked--everyone loves it on here so I obviousely missed out. I think the blurn put me off or something.

Is it that good?

S


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## Rory Miller (Oct 21, 2010)

I just read A Best A Man Can Get by Offerel I think. Very good lad lit.


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## mscottwriter (Nov 5, 2010)

Imho, _Juliet Naked_ is outstanding. Maybe my favorite Horny book. I've just started the YA book of his, _Slam_.


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## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

I have the challege of teaching Freshman Composition to students who, for the most part, would rather do anything than read and write. I look for contemporary novels that really might grab them, and I've used three Hornby books over the last few years. (I'm a fan.) "High Fidelity" and "A Long Way Down" were absolute hits and made for fabulous discussions. I recently used "Juliet, Naked," which most of them liked but no one was particularly enveloped by them the way the other two books were.  There were fewer ideas in it to talk about. Where "A Long Way Down" brought up a lot of truths about living, "Juliet, Naked" had a good plot but there wasn't much to think about. With the first two books, a few nonreaders said, "Hey, I've never liked a book, but this was really good--any more books to recommend?" I love it when I can make people realize reading can be fun.


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## jherrick (Apr 1, 2011)

Soccerwriter said:


> Any suggestions of authors of fiction that remind you guys of Hornby? What was it the britpress called his genre, Ladfiction or something?


Juliet Naked was great. Early Tom Perrotta novels strike me as ladlit--Joe College, The Wishbones, Bad Haircut.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Juliet, Naked is very good.  My 2nd favorite book of his behind High Fidelity.


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

I just persuaded my book club to read HOW TO BE GOOD.  They really enjoyed discussing it, although they didn't like any of the characters that much.  

Julia


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I didn't care for How to be Good very much myself.  Of the books of his I've read, I'd rank them as follows.

High Fidelity
Juliet, Naked
About A Boy
--then a big drop off--
A Long Way down
--then another drop off--
How to Be Good

Slam I read the Kindle sample and was pretty sure it wasn't for me so I skipped.  Not much interest in reading his non-fiction stuff.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Big Hornby fan (though it looks like I've got a new book or two to catch up on). Like so many others, I got into him through the High Fidelity movie, which, aside from its transplant to Chicago, I thought was an impressively faithful adaptation. As usual, the book was still better, but they got just about everything right.


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2011)

I loved _A Long Way Down_. It was actually my introduction to Hornby and it was the first book I'd ever read with a multiple first-person POV narrative. Very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.


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## 5711 (Sep 18, 2009)

Thanks for the reading tips, all. I can't believe I've never got to Hornby until recently. I read _Fever Pitch_ and thought it was okay, heartfelt and subtly funny, but I was surprised at the sheer mass of football details and not just for gooners (Arsenal fans). I say this as a huge soccer fan and lifelong player. That said, it worked for me, and I get that it was a breakthrough book with its mix of memoir and sports/culture homage.

The writing was promising enough that I expect big things from the rest of his books, especially from his novels. I'm going to take your word for it so don't let me down, people!  _A Long Way Down_ sounds interesting. It takes some cojones to pull off a multiple first-person POV.

For the record, fellow footie freaks: My hometown/boyhood club is the Portland Timbers (Rose City Till I Die!). I'm also a so-so Fulham fan (Fulhamerica!), and wish TSV 1860 München would someday get promoted and give Bayern a good ole whuppin'.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

I love early Hornby, High Fidelity and About a Boy. He does the man-boy as well as anyone. I think Fever Pitch was even earlier than those two, no? My Petoskey Stone puts a Hornby hero in a mystery -- no pitch intended.


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## William Peter Grasso (May 1, 2011)

High Fidelity...my favorite, hands down. The movie wasn't bad, either.


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## twisted (Feb 13, 2011)

TheRiddler said:


> I loved the book, and I'm a Spurs fan (Arsenal's staunch rivals), so if I can enjoy it, anyone can!


I won't have it in the house.  

COYS!

(Sorry about that everyone.)


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## Jorean (Jul 31, 2010)

I'm a big Hornby fan. I love his books. I remember just about dying with glee when I heard him and Ben Folds were making a album together. My fav author plus my fav musician making music together? Bliss.


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