Upd: This is once again a book, which after a time loses my rating about it. So, if you don't see it, it is two stars.

Full review.
I don't know, if I should give it two or three stars. The thing is, the book was ok, it was sometimes boring and it was ridiculous at times, yet, when I was in a right mood (miserable), it was a page turner, yet when I wasn't in the right mood (happy), it was quite boring.

As many others, I have seen the film countless times and I think that the film has done a marvelous job although it is quite different from the book. It is one of those times when all the things movie adds to the book are actually great.

There were so many silly and unrealistic things in this book, which made me facepalm, yet at the same time, it weirdly did attract me despite the writing - I would consider it bad, yet it is good because the author tried to picture Bridget's writing - in that sense writing is quite perfect. (Does that make any sense?)

In conclusion, I think I didn't much care about it, it was a fast and easy read and was ok.

it seems like nobody wants to write quippy romcoms with a clear understanding of tone and comedic punchlines these days!!!!!!!!! now it's all millennial tiktok humor and clumsy physical comedy to get the main couple together.....no! GIVE ME ONE-OFF JOKES, ANECDOTES, GRIMLY MOCKING OPINIONS, COMICAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE WORLD AND THROWAWAY CHARACTERS? why must we resort to internet mimicry and clumsy heroines?

this is probably the least romantic romcom ever, but it's hilariously hyperreal for that reason and totally of its time, in a way that is charming and not too kitschy. the diary set-up worked amazingly and gave the overarching narrative a kind of episodic, sitcom-esque feel that kept me thoroughly entertained throughout.

the worst crimes committed herein are the all too common "haha! people of color are weird!" jeers emblematic of late nineties white woman fiction. even the obsessive diet/eating disorder subplot i found successfully satirical and still true to our world almost three decades later.

objectionable get-together (so rushed, but that's okay because helen fielding doesn't really seem to understand romance writing), though the book was funny enough that i’ll forgive it. now onto the movie adaptation!!!!!

Read this one years ago, hilarious!

Originally read in 2016. Reread January 2024. Amended rating from 3★ upped to 4★

**January 2024. The reason for my revisit is this book The Other Bridget. I'd like to read the whole series and it was necessary as my memory is shocking. This new contemporary read by Rachael Johns was so refreshing, with the feisty protag based on the original Bridget. I'm curious if Aussie Rachael reached out to Helen Fielding, it would have been an interesting chat I'd bet! My thoughts second time round include these. The mum was crazy scattered and a tad annoying, but with some surprising insightful opinions. Mark Darcy was infinitly patient aided by the tropes of a love triangle and the always hoped for second chance. And what say you about the dastardly miscommunication? Mmm. Slightly annoying constancy of relationship speak - though I suppose this is an aged book. One quote from Bridget's mum (which I didn't note down due to audio - smashingly performed by Imogen Church) that I loved went something like this, while they were having their colours done (eek). If she's a spring, then I'm a tin of peaches. I'm not a writer, so it was better than this. BJD was a romp, and a fun one for my summer holidays, furnished by BorrowBox and my public library.**

Watched and loved the movie first, and that's what's stuck unfortunately. So I'd say this is 3.5 stars from me. Of course it would’ve been a different experience if I’d read it first, and I can totally see why the movie focused on Daniel the cad.. What would the movie have been without the fist fight in the snow?!

The diary entries witty, the protagonist funny and cheeky. She's a ninny isn't she?! This is a fun book, a romp really, and all the more fun with the self deprecation that is Bridget. It’s a fun reminder of the noughties (naughties??) and the nineties, for me at least.

I love the mention in the book of Colin Firth and Hugh Grant (I love these guys full stop). And what’s not to love about “Gav had cooked spag bog”. But why oh why are Aussie’s always portrayed as drunkards?! Perhaps there really is something behind that..

"…I have nothing to wear. I’m no good at anything. Not men. Not social skills. Not work. Nothing.” Love her.

"Where in the name of arse where you last night?” I said. “I might ask the same of you,” he said, icily. Love it.

Where else can we read gold pieces like this? I'd eat blue soup all day, if I could sit down with Bridget and Mark. Daniel too, even if he’s a sod.

This was somehow decent enough. I’m quite confused because so many things happened out of nowhere.

This is about Bridget Jones. A woman who is in some sort of life crisis because she’s unsure on what’s going on with her life, her boss is flirting with her but doesn’t want anything to do with her, she really wants a boyfriend, and she’s desperate to lose weight. Also, she smokes a lot.

As I said, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. It was sorta okay but I saw no point to the plot, it was like just reading…. Idk, something that wasn’t a diary. Sure, it was entertaining at times but not that good.

Characters were alright, but wasn’t a fan.

I’m not really sure what to think. All I can say is I saw no plot.

I like the movie a lot. A long time ago, I made a promise to myself that I will read the original book in English.
At least 10 years passed and I achieved that little goal today.
What can I say? I like the movie more)))

I've had this book on my shelf for a while now, when all of a sudden I feel an urge to drop the books I'm currently reading and just go with Bridget Jones's Diary. Having watched the movie about a gazillion times prior to reading the book (yes, a guilty pleasure I'm not ashamed of), I was quite prepared what to expect, and was a bit skeptical as to whether I'll like it that much now that I'm spoiled. But girl, did I like that book! Although in a format of a very untypical diary, the book gives a very, very realistic idea of how women feel about themselves, their relationships with friends/family/men and their lives in general. Not sure if this matches what I categorize as chick-lit in my head, but who cares anyway? I really, really liked that book and definitely recommend it. It's a very quick read, it's totally relatable and very funny. Gotta go now, the movie is waiting.

Nov. 9, 2023 Addendum
"Space is big." Douglas Adams

Originally, I didn't go to the Bridget Jones movie or read the book because (pausing while trying to think of a nonoffensive way to say) they sounded totally stupid. After I read the book, I searched for a polite way to say the book probably wouldn't cause permanent damage to your IQ.

So why did I read the Bridget Jones book?

Recently, I've become interested in the genre that Blake Snyder calls Fool Triumphant, and Jessica Brody wrote that Bridget Jones was a good example of this genre. She also included Stargirl in her list of Fool Triumphant novels. Molly in The Maid and Forrest Gump are also examples of the Fool Triumphant genre. (On Goodreads, the general consensus on Forrest Gump appears to be that if you love the movie, you'll hate the book and vice-versa. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the movie, so maybe I'll like the book.)

In conclusion, I'm gonna stick with my original conclusion, that is, Bridget Jones probably won't cause permanent damage to your IQ.

==============

Nov. 1, 2023

"Mostly harmless." Douglas Adams

"Skirt is indisputably absent. Is skirt off sick?"

Despite what most of my friends think about me, I'm a sucker for good romantic comedies. Sure, they'll tell you that I mostly end up calling everything cheesy and roll my eyes but that's a coping mechanism and they just don't get me, alright? One of my favourite chick flicks is, you guessed it, Bridget Jones's Diary. I love its lightheartedness, how utterly 2000 it feels and looks, the Pride and Prejudice references and, my god, how gorgeous are Grant and Firth in this one? It's a personal attack I say, I'll sue!!

I didn't have many hopes for this book since I had already started it once but couldn't be bothered to finish it. Recently though I decided to give it another go. It just.. didn't work for me.

Bridget Jones's Diary presents itself in the form of a diary that doesn't feel like an intimate portrayal of life at all as it lists a series of stuff that happens to Bridget in the driest way possible. At some point it takes her pages and pages to tell us how unsuccessfully she's trying to work the video recorder. Who cares Bridget? Who cares?? There really is no plot if we don't consider poor Bridget whinging about her weight and men for the majority of this story.

As a character, Bridget doesn't grow and doesn't inspire empowerment at all as she doesn't stand up for herself, not even once. She lets people walk all over her and mops around afterwards. She's so self-centered that, as a reader, you struggle to see her as anything else beyond a huge ego. Her friends are the ones who help her and who care for her, but you never feel this care expanding from within her. Even when her parents are going through a rough patch she ends up projecting their issues onto her own, like, ew.

When it comes to the romance, she will tell us that she is in love, but we don't get to experience that love. We don't know Daniel at all, we just know that he's a borderline sexual harasser and a sex god. Good to know Bridget, can't we go a little deeper? And what about Mark? I.. Was he even in the book? (Seriously, was he? I ended up skimming through most of its second half)

What got me more than anything else though was the fake feminism. I know that when it comes to light-hearted comedies, feminism can become too surface level, but I wasn't prepared for this!

n"After all, there is nothing so unattractive to a man as strident feminism."
(I don't know if this is possible but I felt my uterus litearally shrivel up)

"Think will cross last bit out as contains mild accusation of sexual harassment whereas v. much enjoying being sexually harassed by Daniel Cleaver."

"That didn't give him license to sexually harass me, but the complication was quite enjoyable, really."
(The oxymoron in these last two is what my nightmares are made of)

Bridget pretends she's a raging feminist but only when she gets to talk shit about men with her friends. Because that's what feminists do. Sometimes her friend Sharon would come up with actual good talking points that could have started interesting conversations (like the unwillingness of most women to stop compromising their careers for the sake of men who don't share the same emotional investment as their partners), but Bridget mostly fat-shames, calls a woman a "worthless trollop" because she's wearing a suit better than she did and at some point she laughs at Daniel Cleaver's "frigid cow" comment (he calls her that because she once refused to have drunken sex with him). I'm ---

Finally, that cover is so ugly I want it to die the worst death.

Needless to say that I disliked this book intensely, but am also very thankful for the movies it inspired. Without it we wouldn't have been able to get this brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before Hugh Grant, and what a wretched existence that would have been:

The movie was better. In the book Bridget is annoying idiot, who has serious problems with alcohol and zero self-control.

//Relectura n° indefinido -existía la vida antes de Goodreads y yo he perdido la cuenta de las veces que lo he leído//

Bridget Jones es más simple que el mecanismo de un chupete y en su cerebro no caben más inseguridades/locuras/tonterías pero siempre siempre siempre me parto de la risa con ella, siempre me alegra el día y es un descanso para mi cabeza volver a pasar un rato con ella. No puedo evitarlo, me encanta este libro, es mi Dirty dancing literario

I surly can’t be the only one that instantly heard Zellweger’s voice whilst reading this book?
It feels like one of them novels that is so synonyms with the movie.

I always like story’s narrated through diary entries, as it gives a great sense of realism.
Told over the course of a year during the mid-90’s also it also gave me a real nostalgic rush with the likes of Blind Date and Noel’s House Party were referenced.
Even a mention of a Dalek made me chuckle!

It’s been ages since I’d last watched the movie, so could easily distance any comparisons between the two.
I soon found myself slipping into Bridget’s life with ease and all the characters felt so familiar to me.
Such a fun read!