Author Nick Hornby gave an interview on our local NPR station a couple of weeks ago. I caught only the tail end of the interview, but the themes of his works sounded interesting. I went to my local library and checked out a copy of "High Fidelity." Strangely enough, I found myself hesitating to read it.
I was a voracious reader when I was younger. I plowed through dozens of fantasy and science fiction novels. But, let's be honest, when you are younger you can spare the time and energy to be voracious and obsessive about something because you don't have all those adult "hobgoblins" competing for your time and attention.
What if I couldn't finish "High Fidelity?" I know, considering the theme of the work, this seems ridiculous and farcical-- but part of me was concerned that I couldn't muster the necessary attention span and spare the time to really enjoy this book. And I wanted to enjoy this book. I needed to enjoy this book because it would be the first full fiction book I'd read in months.
Can you forget how to read? It sounds like a dumb question, doesn't it? But, if you take three years of ballroom dance, and then never dance again for a year, it's awful difficult to dust off the cobwebs. What if I'd forgotten how to turn off the analytical/technical parts of my brain and just read for pleasure? Or, worse yet, what if I tried to read it and found myself stuck in that critical/analytical mode of thought and killed all the joy a person normally gets from reading a good yarn?
I needn't have worried. I started reading last night at the "opening mic night" and finshed the whole book within three sittings over 24 hours. Nick Hornby is a fantastic writer, in my opinion-- he doesn't get all artsy and fancy with the writing technique; he stays out of his own way and delivers the story. I'm not going to recap the plot here, because let's be honest-- most everyone has seen the movie with John Cusack and won't bother to invest time in reading the novel.
Thank you, Nick Hornby. It's nice to know I can still just read and enjoy it.