suicide...by tiny, tiny increments

High Fidelity has been sitting on my shelves for not too long. I picked it up and read it one Sunday.

I loved the movie; it's one of those I could watch over and over again. John Cusack helps a lot. But I really love talking about or hearing about people's connection with music. I also love making lists, so this book has a lot going for it.

Rob has just been dumped by Laura and the book chronicles his time trying to deal with this. He starts by listing the top five breakups he's ever had, and eventually searches each of these women out to try and find some answers. Laura is not on this list. Rob also runs a small record store which causes him to have some issues about his success in life. Music is a big part of Rob's life. Big part.

I love the idea of the top 5 lists that Rob and his two coworkers make all the time. They start out as lists dealing with music, but Rob has a hard time not thinking in top 5 lists. I especially love thinking about his top 5 breakup stories. Not all of them are what you would expect. They aren't all soul crushing, long-term relationship breakups. But they all had a huge impact on who he became as a person. I wonder what my top 5 would be.

In his angst about Laura leaving, Rob reorganizes his massive record collection. This is something I completely understand. I could spend days organizing my books - it's a kind of therapy.

This book is part love story and part coming of age tale, even though Rob is in his 30s. But I think that is getting more and more typical in our society - you don't quite know what you're doing with your life until later and later.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Pick it up.

Few quotes, sorry no page numbers

"It's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party." ~ how true do you think this is - I'm leaning towards agreeing completely.

"Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostagic and hopeful all at the same time."

"Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship." ~ This is another thing that is so true for a lot of people I know. All or nothing baby.