Slam by Nick Hornby

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Just when everything is coming together for Sam, his girlfriend Alicia drops a bombshell. Make that ex -girlfriend-- because by the time she tells him she's pregnant, they've already called it quits. Sam does not want to be a teenage dad. His mom had him at sixteen and has made it... read more

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Sam Jones, a 16 year old teenage boy is a skater and the child of a teenage pregnancy. Annie Jones, his mother, and him live together where his mother raises him singlehandedly, whereas Sam's father, Dave Jones, a plumber who doesn't want anything to do with raising Sam. Sam has a passion to... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Characters/People edit see section history

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Sam Jones: Main Character, teenager who likes to skateboard, favorite subject at school: art and design, favorite book: Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder, has a baby named Rufus nicknamed Roof.
Annie Jones: Sam's mom, ages round 30 had Sam at 16 years old
Rabbit: Sam's friend. Good at skating, not so good at thinking
Rubbish: Sam's other friend. Bad at skating, but at least talks sense
Alicia Burns: Sam's Girlfriend
Andrea Burns: Alicia's mom, ages around 50
Robert Burns: Alicia's dad, ages around 50
Mark: Annie's Boyfriend
Rufus Jones (Roof): Sam and Alicia's son, born, is name is after an artist who was singing a song during Rufus' birth. Birthday September 12th (?)
Dave Jones: Sam's dad. Hates Europeans. Uneducated.
TH - Tony Hawk: Sam's favorite Skater.
Hastings: Add a description of this character.
Mr. Brady
Ruth
Consuela
Well
Jason
Emily
Riley
Justin Timberlake
David Beckham
Alex
Gerson
Erin

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Quotes edit see section history

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“There was a time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.”
Sam Jones
“Listen. You're gorgeous. But the trouble is, you know it, and you think you can treat people like dirt because of it. Well, I'm sorry, but I'm really not that desperate.”
Sam Jones
“"hei,Sam,your mother...you know her,right?"”

Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
What’s incredible to me is that you can keep out of trouble pretty much every minute of your life apart from maybe five seconds, and that five seconds can get you into the worst trouble of all, just about.
Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
TH…he wasn’t me. But he was who I wanted to be, so that makes him the best version of myself, and that can’t be a bad thing, to have the best version of yourself standing there on a bedroom wall and watching you. It makes you feel as though you mustn’t let yourself down.
Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
But I didn’t think of anything else apart from being with Alicia, and the only time I felt like I was where I wanted to be was when I was with her.
Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
You can’t rewrite history, or leave bits of it out just because it suits you.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
Maybe that’s how couples stay together: they’re not greedy. They know that what they have in front of them has to last a long time, so they kind of pick at it.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
But in our family, people always slip up on the first step. In fact, most of the time they don’t even find the stairs.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
There were a couple of young mums at my school, and they acted like a baby was an iPod or a new mobile or something, some kind of gadget that they wanted to show off. There are many differences between a baby and an iPod. And one of the biggest differences is, no one’s going to mug you for your baby. You don’t have to keep a baby in your pocket if you’re on the bus late at night. And if you think about it, that must tell you something, because people will mug you for anything worth having, which means that a baby can’t be worth having.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
You really need to live your life, and not just zoom in and out of it. Otherwise you never know what’s going on.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
You should never drag stuff out of a nice conversation and chuck it back in the middle of a nasty one. Instead of one good memory and one bad memory, you’re left with two shitty ones.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
“What you have to ask yourself all the time is, Do I want a fag now, this second? Because if you don’t, then don’t have one. And if you think you can survive that second, then you’re on to the next second. And you have to live like that.” That’s what I’d tell myself. Do I want to go home now, this very minute? And if I think I can stick it out for one more minute, I’ll move on to the next one. I’d try not to worry about tomorrow, next week, next month.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers