Funny, warm, and candid about emotional growing pains, this is a book I would recommend to anyone to fight the daily blahs. I had read High Fidelity before picking this up, and was happy to find this book just as good and fast-moving. I rip through Hornby books with the same speed and compulsive pleasure as eating chips in front of the TV, and I mean this as a compliment. I think he makes it seem easier than it is - it is no small feat to have prose that flows so easily, with round characters whose voices are all so charming. The dialogue is great in both books, especially the internal dialogue which I found incredibly realistic. I can count on one hand the books that have made me laugh out loud and both of these did. 
 About A Boy revolves around the idea that reaching out to people around us can be both a blessing and a curse. Hornby has not sugar-coated the pain that results when we fail to succeed at that connection, and that's what makes this book meaningful and sweet but not syrupy sweet. I'd seen the movie twice before reading this and it was still very much worth the read even though I knew the plot...it gave me that happy reading buzz that my favorite books do.