How to Be Good

{{Short description|2001 novel by Nick Hornby}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox book|

| name = How to Be Good

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = Howtobegoodcover.jpg

| caption = First edition cover

| author = Nick Hornby

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = England

| language = English

| series =

| genre = Novel

| publisher = Viking Press

| release_date = 31 May 2001

| english_release_date =

| media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback) & Audio CD

| pages = 256 pp

| isbn = 0-670-88823-0

| oclc= 46393465

| preceded_by = About a Boy

| followed_by = A Long Way Down

}}

How to Be Good is a 2001 novel by the English writer Nick Hornby.{{Cite web |title=How to Be Good {{!}} novel by Hornby {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/How-to-Be-Good |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Tim |date=2001-05-27 |title=How does it feel to be a woman? First, the Good News... |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/may/27/fiction.nickhornby |access-date=2024-08-05 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}} It centers on characters Katie Carr, a doctor, and her husband, David Grant. The story begins when David stops being "The Angriest Man In Holloway" and begins to be "good" with the help of his spiritual healer, DJ GoodNews (who also shows up briefly in Hornby's A Long Way Down). The pair go about this by nominally convincing people to give their spare bedrooms to the homeless, but as their next scheme comes around, "reversal" (being good to people one has not been good to in the past), this proves to be fruitless and thus David gives up his strivings and his plans for a book on how to be good, appropriately named "How to be Good."

The protagonist, Katie, briefly encounters a minor character named Dick whose description and attitude towards music are reminiscent of the character of the same name from Hornby's first novel, High Fidelity.