It's all about booze, sex and sigarettes, but in a very sad "I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-life-so-I'll-just-keep-doing-what-I'm-good-at"-way. I think the word 'fatuous' fits the main character quite well.
If you feel like reading something similiar, just grab the diary of a random 15 year old. ("Oooh, I'm too fat!" "I need a boyfriend!" etc.) ( )

Wickedly funny. ( )

Story: 2 / 10
Characters: 6
Setting: 6
Prose: 4 ( )

Cute classic "chick lit" ( )

This modern reinvention of Pride and Prejudice is pretty amusing, if you can forgive the substitution of the silly Bridget character for Elizabeth Bennett. Actually, this is more a reinvention of the story, if there were no Bennett sisters and if Lydia were the main character instead of Elizabeth. Because Bridget is every bit as vacuous and boy-crazy as Lydia. Still, it’s a fun story, and the audio performance by Tracie Bennett (name coincidence?) perfectly captures Bridget’s voice as she reads the diary entries. I actually preferred the movie version to the original text, although this may be due to the audio being an abridged version. Abridgements are rarely successful, IMHO.

I read this for Task the Eighth: The Movie Ticket (Read a book that has been adapted to a holiday movie). Although it wasn’t explicitly a holiday movie, it begins and ends during the Christmas/New Year holiday season, so I think of it as an annual holiday watch, similar to Love, Actually and An Affair to Remember.
( )

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I rather enjoyed this read. I've watched the movie on multiple occasions, and I'd like to think that it's one of my favorite movies. So, I figured why not read the book. In all honesty, I think I enjoyed elements of both the book more and the movie in others. For example, in the movie Bridget's friends are a little more supportive, however in the book they're kinda of a bunch of assholes...except maybe Tom (but he has his crappy moments too).

Anyway, I did enjoy this read. I could understand how for new generations (talking about anyone born after the 90's) could find this read a little outdated or irrelevant to today, but for someone like me this was exactly my upbringing, my experience "growing up,". What Bridget Jones goes through in the book (weight gain, anxiety, friend issues, relationship issues, etc.) is what I went through as well and it made me analyze my past in a constructive fashion. Instead of letting my past affect my present mental state, I used this book as more of a therapeutic experience.

In a weird way, after reading this book, I feel a little lighter. Like I've shed some heavy part of me (no pun intended). I think this book isn't so much about Bridget Jones the person, but rather seeing what our thoughts do to us when we let them control all aspects of our lives. The fact that Bridget thinks that 131 lbs. is considered horrendous is something relatable. Like I said, for younger generations who didn't grow up in a society where weight and image was 90% of everything, understanding might not come so easily to them.

Anyway...all in all I really did like this read. Looking forward to reading the sequel. ( )

I think there is an unwritten rule that with the exception of Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters, chick flicks almost always work better as movies than books. ( )

A nice chick-lit escape. So much funnier than expected even with the notoriously dry English humor. Looking forward to next in series. ( )

Me encanta Bridget. Buena historia ( )

Two stars because it is not necessarily bad, just repetitive. There's no way I can make it through a whole year of this so I'm closing the book in April. I almost never say this but: the movie is better. ( )

I realized the movie was so good, I should probably try the book. It did cause a phenomenon after all.

First, I’ve got to say this is the worst cover I’ve ever seen. Creepy woman with big eyes and puckered mouth trapped inside a book. Looks like Tom Riddle’s diary went drag.

Second, the movie is far far superior to the book. As expected, it’s an epistolary. Every entry is pretty short and always starts with calories consumed, alcohol drunk, cigarettes smoked. This woman has ADHD, which makes her entries difficult to read. It embodies all the worst elements of chick lit. She’s super judgy, complains a lot. She makes bad decisions, then wonders why there are consequences for her actions. I admire her for standing up to “masculine fuckwittage” as she calls it (for example, refusing to indulge a man who stood her up, then went on a date just to get sex). But her other characteristics make her very difficult to stomach. She and I couldn’t hang.

It’s a look into the double standards of single woman life, expecting the body to be a certain way and full of people around her who say the same thing. At least it’s short. But you are way better off watching the movie and avoiding the book. There is nothing that you missed. ( )

Not what I expected, and to me not very engaging. ( )

This was a beautiful example of how to write a really solid chick flick. I adored this book and laughed out loud quite a bit. I haven't seen the movie, so I wasn't influenced at all by this.

As this was told as a diary, this had entries for most days, all of which begun with Bridget's weight, the amount of alcoholic units she'd consumed, the amount of cigarettes she'd smoked, and in some entries, how many lotto tickets she'd bought. I loved this because of her own self-deprecating or unrealistic comments on these.

Her voice is so real and I loved seeing her thoughts about her interactions with her colleagues, her friends, and people she dates. I especially loved the commentary on Singletondom and how married people constantly inquired as to her love life. I'm thankfully not old enough to have hit that point yet, but I still found this immensely relatable.

I was confused about Bridget's relationship with Simon, but so was she and that was fun. I was confused about some of her friends' relationships with other people, but so were they, and watching them try to interpret signals from significant others was absolutely hilarious.

This was similar to a Princess Diaries book written by Sophie Kinsella, and it was absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a good chick flick to kill time with. ( )

This was an extremely difficult book to read. I almost DNF’d it twice, but kept on reading, hoping it would get better. It didn’t. This is simply a boring book that was difficult to finish.

The story is told in diary form by Bridget Jones, who is whiny, boring, and shallow. She is neither funny nor likeable. She engages in stupid and idiotic behavior repeatedly and never learns from her mistakes. Such as falling in love with and dating “bad boy” Daniel over and over despite his toxic behavior toward Bridget. She repeats her same mistakes again and again.

The characters, including Bridget, are one dimensional and flaccid. It was impossible to work up any empathy for anyone in this book.

There is also a slight error in her diary. On the entry for March 15, she writes it is two weeks until her birthday. Then 6 days later on March 21, it is her birthday. Is she so stupid she does not even know when her birthday is? It would not surprise me.

Just avoid this book and don’t waste your time. ( )

I didn't really like this one. I don't know why ( )

Occasionally humourous but mostly dull book. It's not particularly realistic as a diary but putting that aside (since fictional diaries are almost never realistic journaling), I found Bridget to be an annoying, stereotypical, ditzy woman whose life revolves around her weight, drinking alcohol, and finding a man. If this book is supposedly the best in chick-lit, I don't want to think about what the rest of the genre is like. At least the movie was fairly entertaining. ( )

Maybe should have read this before the movie. One of the rare instances where I liked the movie way more than the book. ( )

I didn't read this, or watch the movies, when it came out. It didn't appeal then and I'm not sure it really appeals now. In 1996, when it came out, I was mid 20s but had a lot more of my life sorted than Bridget does. I've never really obsessed about dieting or weight - I've always been built for comfort, not speed - and it's never really bothered me.
Listening to this now, it has not necessarily aged well. The cultural references and the apparent lack of mobile phones make it seem a period piece. Bridget herself amused me, but she annoyed me a lot more. I'm not going to be going back for more. ( )

I don't remember being this needy and neurotic and pathetic and self-absorbed at 26. But then I didn't have a bat-shit crazy mother, either, so maybe that's why. She is so totally clueless she doesn't even know when Darcy is in love with her and still thinks her cheating boss will leave his wife and go off with her. I grew tired of her really quickly. Unlike Pride and Prejudice which this is a takeoff on, this Darcy could have done a hell of a lot better. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3704697.html

I had of course read this years ago when it first came out. It's still pretty funny, even though some parts of it have dated - nobody has a mobile phone, for instance, and nobody is on social media which did not exist in the prehistoric days of (checks) 1996. There are some hilarious moments and good bits of human observation. It's an entertaining book, but not a deep one; you basically know from the encounter with Mark Darcy on the very first day how this is going to end up, and that the storyline with Daniel is going to turn out badly. A good quick read. ( )

not as good as the movie leads you to beleive but definitely worth the read. ( )

I re-read this for a little lighthearted break after having read an emotionally harder book. I read it first around the time it was first released, and it struck me that times have changed even in that short expanse of time, as some of the attitudes in the book are already ones we have moved on from. It was still fun to revisit Bridget et al, and it was the light relief I was seeking. ( )

Review dated 05/21/14. Book read 02/03/08.

I've been going back and commenting on books I've rated but did not actually review at the time. Prior to Goodreads, my books were on spreadsheets and I did give them a rating but usually didn't say much about what I thought.

This is my problem with this book. At the time I read it, I gave this book 2 stars. But why? I remember nothing of this book. Absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. I actually forgot I had even read it.

So - I guess the 2 stars stands for - it was all right, but a forgettable read. ( )

Maybe it is just that I was expecting too much, but there's not much story here - Bridget obsesses about her single-ness and the biggest plot line is her parents' failing marriage. There is hardly anything at all about the notorious Mark Darcy - very little interaction at all. Also, because there are a fair number of cultural references, the book feels a bit dated. ( )

An easy read, the concept was fairly unique when it came out. ( )