I think it goes without saying that this is a very funny and witty book, and the main character Bridget Jones is one of the most relatable characters I've read about. I especially liked her intros to every diary entry where we get to know how much she weighs, how many calories she's had during the day, how many cigarettes she has smoken, etc. It was fantastic and actually made me feel quite good about myself, because apparently I'm not the only one with those kind of insecurities.
I have watched the movie adaption of this book several times and I will say that decreaed my reading experience a little bit. I didn't laugh as much at all of the jokes and whimsical twists because I knew they were coming - however, I did laugh out loud once because Bridget's tone of voice and sense of dry humour is amazing.
This is a book that will make you feel good - especially if you are of the female species, even though I'm pretty sure males would find it very entertaining and educating as well :-)

What a depressingly bad book. ‘Helen Fielding is one of the funniest writers in Britain,’ says Nick Hornby on the front cover, ‘and Bridget Jones is a creation of comic genius.’ What on earth…? Why is he saying that? Did he want to sleep with her? Same goes for Salman Rushdie. ‘A brilliant comic creation,' blurbs Salman. 'Even men will laugh.’ Oh, Salman. Why is he saying that? Surely, if a book is genuinely funny, then people will laugh irrespective of their gender. Obviously. ‘Even men will laugh.’ What kind of bullshit is that? As it happens, I did laugh. I laughed, if I remember correctly, four times. Out loud. On the other hand, I also shouted out in anger, annoyance and plain old despair at least forty times.

So what’s wrong with this book?

Well, in a nutshell: flaccid, half-dimensional characterisation; sickeningly pat plotting – the ending in particular is an embarrassing slap in the face for anyone who's ever shown even a passing consideration for the real world; downright adolescent ideas about style – those bits where she writes ‘drunk’ and ends up with her typing slurred are a disgrace.

Also, I know Helen Fielding can’t exactly be blamed for this, but Jesus, you’d think Picador could afford a decent proof reader. There are so many incredible howlers in BJD that it beggars belief. On page 174 of this edition, for example…



…not only is there an ‘on one’ instead of a ‘no one’, but there is also – drum roll – this: ‘that’s a nice shirt your wearing’. NOOOOOoooooooo! God in Heaven, strike me down and bugger me.

One thing that particularly upset me about this book - and which Helen Fielding can be blamed for - was the woefully predictable oscillation of mood. This kind of thing throughout:

7pm. Opened bottle of wine feeling desperate and lonely and miserable. 7.30pm. Oh unassailable joy! Daniel called and declared his undying love for me. 8pm. Daniel called back and said he’d called the wrong number by mistake. He thought I was Ryan Giggs. (Who?) Opened second bottle of wine. Binged on marshmallow and lard and put on 3 stone in 20 minutes. 9pm. Oh insurmountable ecstasy! Mark Darcy called and declared his undying love for me. He’s coming over. Performed quick gastric bypass procedure on self and washed hair. Down to 9 stone but still look podgy. 10.30pm. Mark Darcy stood me up. Why am I so lonely? Why? Why? Why?

Because you’re a bore, Bridget, that’s why. You’re a fucking bore.

Of course I know we don’t have to like our fictional protagonists. Patrick Bateman, for example, is vile. As is Humbert Humbert, and even Homer Simpson. Yet in each of these cases, it is possible to describe these characters using one or more of the following adjectives: ‘interesting’, ‘fascinating’, ‘funny’ or ‘well-written’. And all of these things are important. However, if you insist on creating a character who is dull, slow-witted, utterly charmless, and self-indulgent to the point of mentally ill, then you’d better make sure that you write them well. Otherwise no one will read your book.

So, I suppose the next question has to be: how could I believe so passionately that what I’m saying is true and yet at the same time be so wildly and obviously wrong?

Bridget Jones's Diary has apparently sold millions and millions and millions of copies worldwide. It has also picked up astonishing reviews by the likes of the inestimable Jilly Cooper and a clearly fuckstruck Salman Rushdie.

My instinct is to say that these people are all wrong and that I know dross when I read it and that Bridget Jones’s Diary is utter, utter dross. But… what if it’s me?

This is a chilling thought. And I'm not sure what to do with it. Perhaps I shall just sit here, in my study, in nothing but the light from my computer monitor, and weep.

3/5⭐️
Lekka, niewymagająca, zabawna. Tak mogłabym opisać tę książkę w tych 3 słowach. Wykreowanie bohaterki na wysokim poziomie. Liczyłam na inne zakończenie, ale niech będzie

This was very strange and I don't think I really liked it all that much. Maybe it's because I'm not British so I didn't understand some of the jokes. Or maybe it's because it was written in 1996 and that was over 20 years ago. I really don't know, but I didn't enjoy it much. I haven't ever seen the movie though, so maybe I'll watch that and see how it compares.

Починала з дуже скептичним настроєм, а закінчила бажанням прийти на вечірні посиденьки до Бріджит.

Funny, light-hearted, and sweet!
Just what I wanted, a nice easy read!
Definitely had some elements that I didn't love. It being in a diary format, it didn't have beautiful and descriptive writing, but it was still very enjoyable!!!
(I weirdly think I like the movie better!!!)

Bridget Jones's Diary (Bridget Jones, #1), Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «یادداشتهای روزانه یک زن»؛ «یادداشت های روزانه یک زن برژیت جونز»؛ نویسنده: هلن فیلدینگ؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: هفتم سپتامبر سال2005میلادی

عنوان: یادداشتهای روزانه یک زن؛ نویسنده: هلن فیلدینگ؛ مترجم: ویدا قانون؛ تهران، چشمه، سال1384، در280ص؛ شابک9643622932؛ عنوان دیگر یادداشتهای روزانه یک زن برژیت (بریجت) جونز؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م

نام فیلم: خاطرات بریجت جونز؛ کارگردان: شارون مگوایر؛ نویسندگان: «ریچارد کرتیس؛ اندرو دیویس، هلن فیلدینگ»؛ بازیگران: «رنی زلوگر؛ هیو گرانت؛ کالین فرث؛ جیم برودبنت؛ امبت دیویتس؛ جما جونز؛ پل بروک»؛ فیلم‌ برداری: «استوارت درایبرگ»؛ تدوین: «مارتین والش»؛ توزیع‌ کننده: «میرامکس (آمریکا)؛ یونیورسال استودیوز (جهان)»؛ تاریخ‌های انتشار: «روز دوم ماه آوریل سال2001میلادی (نمایش نخست بریتانیا)؛ روز سیزدهم ماه آوریل سال2001میلادی (بریتانیا ایالات متحده)؛ روز دهم ماه اکتبر سال2001میلادی (فرانسه)»؛ مدت زمان: در97دقیقه؛ کشور: «بریتانیا»؛ زبان: «انگلیسی»؛ هزینهٔ فیلم: مبلغ26میلیون دلار؛ فروش گیشه: مبلغ218,929,795دلار؛ دنباله این فیلم در سال2004میلادی با عنوان: بریجت جونز: نکته باریک؛ و در سال2016میلادی با عنوان: «بچه بریجت جونز» ساخته شده است

تلاش‌های زنی سی و پنج ساله، برای ترسیم یک زندگی بهتر است، او می‌کوشد در جامعه جا بیفتد، و گلیم خویش را از آب بیرون بکشد، و در این راه از یاری گروهی از دوستان اندک خویش، و یکی دو خانواده ی سنتی، در شهر محل زندگی‌ اش، بهره می‌گیرد؛ زمان وقوع رخدادها دهه ی1990میلادی است؛ پیروزی این داستانها، و دید و نگاه تیزبین «هلن فیلدینگ» بر مسایل ظریف، و حس جامعه شناسی قوی او، سبب شد، زنان بسیاری به دنبال کردن داستانهای «جونز»، علاقه نشان بدهند، و با ایشان همذات پنداری کنند، و بویژه وابستگی زنان، به نشریات زنانه، و خط و ایده‌ هایی که نشریات به زندگی زنان در غرب می‌دهند، در این داستانها مورد تاکید و انتقاد قرار می‌گرفت، و نگاه نقادانه ی: «فیلدینگ»، به مسایلی از آن دست؛ نوشته ی «جونز» را، به چیزی بیش از یک اثر هنری، و حتی فراتر از یک رُمان پرفروش، بدل کرد، و از آن، یک پدیده ی ماندگار اجتماعی ساخت؛ «فیلدینگ» کتاب نخست «بریجیت(بریژیت) جونز» را، که همان جمع آوری پاورقی‌های چاپ شده، در روزنامه «ایندپندنت» بود، در سال1996میلادی منتشر کرد، و یک پاره ی دوم را نیز، با عنوان جنبی، و کامل کننده «لبه منطق، یا همان (نکته باریک)» در سال1999میلادی، روانه بازار ساخت�� و در ادامه کتاب «بچه ی بریجت جونز» را نگاشت

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 23/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 30/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Read this first when I was a teenager. This book has not aged well...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Edit: Changed to 1 star.

Mirror mirror on the wall,
Who's the _______ (insert any derogatory adjective here) of us all?

The answer would be Bridget.

Bridget is the stupidest, most boring, shallowest, most selfish woman I have ever read about. Thank goodness that she is not a real person, otherwise, an encounter with her would have resulted in violence. At first, I wondered if it was me who was unnecessarily angry (the lockdown and all that).
But I don't think so.

She is ALWAYS obsessed with her weight, her attire, the circumference of her thighs, the number of cigarettes she smokes, and the units of alcohol she drinks. But she rarely seems to do anything to change them.

Excuse me, have you heard about exercise? Well, that is what people do when they want to lose weight. Not hog on food and drinks all day and obsess about weight. She weighs herself thrice one night, just because. And 9st is NOT overweight, whatever anyone says. I weigh much more than that and I am not worried and I certainly do not obsess. I can see it can be triggering for someone with medical issues for weight gain.

It is like there is nothing in her life except all of these plus finding a boyfriend. All her friends are the same. There are some feminist lines just for the sake of it and then Bridget acts really bitchy and the subject is done. (She calls the woman with a friend's husband a trollop because she is wearing a coat B couldn't fit in. Said husband could probably be having an affair with the woman, but is our protagonist worried? NO.)

One incident made me see so much red that my husband was worried I'd throw my Kindle across the room. Just after her "best friend" (selfish asshole in his own right, no doubt) inexplicably disappears, and all Bridget is worried about is whether people are paying attention to her and what she will wear to his funeral.

Sheesh.

And what is with her diary entries? Like there is one saying, "Ooof." What, did she write in her diary while she was falling down?

One year through, there is ZERO CHANGE in Bridget. She behaves like a teenager and continues that way throughout. I have absolutely no idea why Mark Darcy or Daniel, for that matter, even notice her or fall for her. And what work does she do, BTW, that allows her to stay independently in a house in London? All she does at the office is to message Daniel and bitch about Perpetua.

And don't even get me started on Bridget's mother.

The author had so much scope to make Bridget grow a backbone. But she didn't and she doesn't.

Bridget remains the same throughout the book (or even worsens, can't say). Everyone steamrolls over her and she does nothing because Bridget does not have an iota of self-respect.

My rant ends here. Bridget is 30. I was 30 not so long ago and I remember how being 30 was like. Hint: Not like this.


Please don't read.

Get up and make sensible plan. Will work hard on journal paper during day, then go for well-earned picnic at open-air movie theatre. Tonight's movie Bridget Jones's Diary (v. good). Make salmon florentine for picnic, will eat half there and save rest for tomorrow. Feel v. organized.

Hard to concentrate thoughts on journal paper. After lunch go back to bed, need to recover energy. Wake up again mid-afternoon. Decide to postpone working on paper until tomorrow, have to tidy apartment since guests coming for picnic and place looks like tip. Pack picnic. Guests arrive, walk down to water and find good spot to pitch camp. While waiting for movie to start, eat all salmon florentine followed by large serve of chocolate mousse and most of two bottles of wine. Halfway through movie, stretch out hand to grope girlfriend and spill remaining wine over brand-new picnic rug (v. bad). Girlfriend not happy. Arrive back home pissed at 1 am. Must do better tomorrow.

The first time I read “Bridget Jones’ Diary”, I had not read enough books, or absorbed enough pop culture, to understand how clichéd it was. I hadn’t read “Pride and Prejudice” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), so I did not realize it was a shameless ripping off of Austen’s beloved story line (the irony of Colin Firth having portrayed both Mr. Darcy and Mark Darcy – seriously, Helen Fielding, you could have tried just a little bit harder – just makes me want to smack my head against a wall). I hadn’t watched “Sex and the City” yet, so I couldn’t have known that the offensively stereotypical gay friend was just the fashionable trope you simply had to have if you were writing a story about a single woman in the 90’s. I thought it was funny and silly, and I enjoyed it mostly because I didn’t think about it at all once I was done with it and put it away. If you just read it as a junk food book, “Bridget Jones” is inoffensive and entertaining. It only becomes problematic if you look back on it and start thinking about it more deeply.

I understand that the point of creating a flawed character like Bridget was to make a very specific target readership feel better about their lives – because they (hopefully) have their shit together more than she does. She is perpetually trying to make her life better, but spends so much time whining about how awful everything is, and eating and drinking her feelings instead of actually getting up and doing something about her dissatisfactions, that nothing ever changes. That’s unfortunately not a behavior I have any patience for (in real life or in books): if you are dissatisfied with something, shut up and do something about it. It’s likely to make for a better story, anyway!

Bridget has a lot of relatable quirks, which can definitely make her endearing. I’d like to think that she is a caricature, an exaggeration of some of our weirdest habits and reactions; I know that her mountain of insecurities and self-hatred is realistic, and while her self-deprecation can be hilarious, her incapacity to think about herself in any positive light troubles me a little. And now that I think about it, I’ve met a lot of real-life Bridgets: women who let their insecurities and social expectations be the compass to every decision they make. I usually avoid them like the plague.

My cynical rear-view mirror makes me wonder how anyone ever thought books about women obsessed with their relationships with men (and eventual marriage and family) was empowering to women. It also makes me wonder how someone claiming to weigh 123 lbs can consider themselves fat; if she is right, that makes me obese by her definition… That her friends and family would keep making things worse by commenting on her damn weight constantly makes me wonder why she puts up with these toxic relationships…

I’ll stop now, because this review is harsh enough already and if I keep dissecting the book, I’ll dock another star. This book is best enjoyed as superficial, junky chick-lit. Try not to overthink it, unless you want to be a sarcastic hag like me!

EXCERPT: Noon, London. My flat: Ugh! The last thing on earth I feel physically, emotionally or mentally equipped to do is drive to Una and Geoffrey Alconbury's New Year's Day Turkey Curry Buffet in Grafton Underwood. Geoffrey and Una Alconbury are my parents best friends and, as Uncle Geoffrey never tires of reminding me, he has known me since I was running around the lawn with no clothes on. My mother rang up at 8.30 in the morning last August Bank Holiday and forced me to promise to go.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:
a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world round — you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!

MY THOUGHTS: I started out thinking that this book was fun. But that quickly wore off. Bridget became, for me, the poster girl for the shallow, inane sort of twit whose only ambition in life is to make a good marriage and have a man support her. The more I read, the more frustrated I felt, and I abandoned this read half way through. If it hadn’t been a library copy, I probably would have burnt it.

THE AUTHOR: Helen Fielding was born in Yorkshire. She worked for many years in London as a newspaper and TV journalist, travelling as wildly and as often as possibly to Africa, India and Central America. She is the author of four novels: Cause Celeb, Bridget Jones’ s Diary, Bridget Jones:The Edge of Reason and Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, and co-wrote the screenplays for the movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary and the sequel based on The Edge of Reason. She now works full-time as a novelist and screenwriter and lives in London and Los Angeles.

DISCLOSURE: I accept that reading is a subjective exercise and that we are not all going to agree on what is a good read (thank goodness, because it would be a boring old world if we did). I would like to stress that this is my personal opinion only, and that literally hundreds of thousands of people have read and enjoyed this book. I am not one of them.

All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

Я просто обожнюю фільм "Щоденник Бріджит Джонс" 2001 року, який в мене асоціюється з новорічними святами. Декілька років тому купила першоджерело цієї історії, але тільки зараз вирішила нарешті прочитати книжку. Очікувань у мене було купа, що на початку мене дуже гальмувало, адже книжкова історія значно відрізняється від кіношної. Переборовши свої очікування я отримала легку, романтичну історію, з якою можна добре відпочити у новорічний період.

Бріджит Джонс трохи за 30, вона самотня працююча жінка, яка схильна до повноти (за її власною думкою). Вона потерпає від тиску "самовдоволених жонатиків" та своєї матері, яка постійно намагається с кимось познайомити доньку (і якби ж то це було єдиною проблемою, спричиненою мамою Бріджит). На додачу до всього головна героїня закохана у свого боса. У Новий рік Бріджит вирішує вести щоденник, куди впродовж року старанно записує як всі події,що з нею відбулися, так і свою вагу, випитий алкоголь, з'їдені калорії та інше.

"Щоденник Бріджит Джонс" - має багато прозорих та непрозорих натяків на "Гордість та упередження" Джейн Остін. І це не дивно, адже Гелен Філдінґ надихнув на написання книги однойменний серіал 1995 року, чи то правильніше сказати Колін Ферт, який зіграв містера Дарсі - прототипом якого персонажа у "Щоденнику Бріджит Джонс" він став не важко здогадатися. Тож в екранізації зіграти Марка Дарсі міг тільки Колін Ферт, з чим актор впорався чудово.

Книга мені дуже сподобалася, я також продовжую любити і фільм, але відтепер вважаю їх двома абсолютно різними історіями однієї жінки.