I Finished Reading High Fidelity the Other Day...

I finished reading High Fidelity the other day, and I've been playing around in my head how exactly I was going to put into words the way that I felt while reading it, and when I finished reading it.
I think that I mentioned before that I don't generally like to read a book after I've seen the movie, as it ruins the reading experience for me. You've got actors stuck in your head, rather than building the characters in your mind as the author moves through the book, little descriptors and nuances changing your concept of the character with each page you read. As a rule I try to read the book before the movie is out (or failing that, at least before I see the movie myself), that is not to say, however, that I make a point of reading every book that's made into a movie, but if it's a book that I've been interested in, and it's on my to read list, then I do try to get the book read before I see the movie ('cause odds are that if I want to read the book, and I enjoy the book, then I want to see how the movie turns out).
In the case of High Fidelity though, I finally decided to let it slide. I saw the movie ages ago (it came out when I was 19, and I hadn't really developed my hard and fast literature/movies rules), and I loved it. I still do. I own it, I've seen it a bunch of times. I'd been thinking about reading the book for a few years now, but I never got around to it, and my book/movie rules nagged at me (no, you shouldn't read it now, it's too late, the read will be wrecked for you by having seen the movie...all that bizarre neurotic crap that runs through my head), then, as I was walking through the library a couple of weeks ago, trolling the shelves for something to read, I meandered through the "Adult Fiction H" section and came across Nick Hornby. I paused, looked at High Fidelity on the shelf, pulled it out, had a look at the paperback (thank god it wasn't the movie cover edition of the book, 'cause that would have been a deal breaker for me...I know it seems superficial, but I'd feel like a band-wagon-jumper reading the movie edition of any book. I feel like it just screams "I'm only interested in reading this because Hollywood deemed it worthy for mass consumption"). Sometimes I think too much about ridiculous shit. Anyways, it was in my hand, and the decision was made. I was finally going to read High Fidelity.
I'm so glad that I did, and it seems like it was kismet or fate or something that I finally decided to read it at this point in my life. It was so fitting, so appropriate. I couldn't believe it. There's so much that I don't have in common with the book's main character Rob Fleming, most obviously, I'm not a 35 year old British man, I am not miserable, hopeless and self destructive in my relationship (quite the opposite, I'm so incredibly happy in mine that sometimes I feel like I'm going to explode, and I'm still not sure how I managed to get so lucky [and yes, I know you're reading this]), but other than that I have started to become a lot like Rob. I've noticed myself becoming more and more bitter, and more and more jaded. So much like Rob in the book.
I've been passively thinking about making some life changes for the past, oh, I don't know, three or four years, and lately it's become less and less passive. Reading High Fidelity was, bizarrely enough, the final push that I needed in the right direction. I know that it's a work of fiction, but I see myself on the same road as Rob, wandering aimlessly, stuck where it's familiar, hating it more and more everyday, becoming more and more bitter and hopeless everyday. I don't want to end up a foul, bitter, overly judgemental person...and the way things are going, I'll end up there if I don't make a change.
It's bizarre that a fictional story about a fictional person can bring about this kind of...well...I won't say epiphany, 'cause I already knew that the problem was there, but you know what I'm getting at. That a fictional story can make the reader see inside herself and realize that there are things that need to change. I guess that would be what makes it great. Now I'm not saying that this is going to be a life changing book for everyone who reads it, for some, for most, likely, it's just a good story, at times quite funny, about a man who works in a shop. A man who does the same dance day in and day out and has come to loathe it, and by virtue of that loathe parts of himself, but for me, it was the perfect book for me to read at this point in my life. Perfect.