52books:

#22: How to be Good by Nick Hornby

How to be Good did not teach me to be good. In fact, I still don’t know what that means. What I do know is that I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a book without liking any of the characters. Not one of them appealed to me in any way, yet I never found the story itself to be lacking actual substance. How to be Good tells of couple on the brink of divorce when one has a complete moral turnaround and spiritual conversion. Of course this leads to many changes and shows the reader that doing good deeds and trying your best to fix what’s broken can still be incredibly annoying. The only line I marked in the whole book is one that makes the most sense and generally sums up a truth we often forget:

It seems to me now that the plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone; you don’t need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone.

I read this a year and a half ago. Here was my review.

At one point she concludes that she can live a beautiful life by reading novels. I have to agree.