Overall: This was an easy read, but not worth the hype it received in my opinion.

Characters:8/10 Bridget is certainly relatable. Her family and friends are interesting as well.
Uniqueness: 5/10
Plot:6/10 Bits of action peppered throughout pages of nothing.
Cover: 5/10
Atmosphere:5/10 The constant focus on weight and dieting was overdone.
Knowledge: 7/10 I liked learning a bit about publishing.
Enjoyment: 6/10 Easy to read, but not much substance.

Fun book!

4,25/5
Bawiłam się fantastycznie, kilka rzeczy mnie raziło, ale macham ręką, bo uwielbiam taki groteskowy humor, kiedy bohaterowie robią rzeczy przy których każdy człowiek myśli "przecież nikt normalny by tego nie zrobił"

A lot of this aged poorly. Particularly the notion that a 130-lbs woman needs to diet and obsess about cellulite. But this remains by far the best Price and Prejudice retelling, and super funny too. Bridget's mom even can beat Mrs. Bennet in terms of ridiculousness. I forgot all about that.

In the woefully crowded pantheon of Jane Austen re-imaginings, Bridget Jones’s Diary is often forgotten about nowadays.

To be fair, a great deal of this is probably because as much as the story sketches the familiar outlines of Pride and Prejudice, its timeliness in relation to the late nineties in cataloging all of the most vapid indignities of being a women in her early thirties — that is, a white woman with a Cosmo subscription and a comfortably middle class income — is generally where the commentary resides.

And while much of Bridget’s insecurities still resonate just as much today as they did then, the stories inability to rise above them hasn’t.

Social pressure is the ticking time bomb here, rather than the search for security that permeates Austen’s work, and Fielding’s epistolary style better situates us in Bridget’s headspace but at times that space can be awfully tedious.

I choose to believe Bridget is an unreliable narrator (or somewhat forgetful) as some of the dialogue here is genuinely bad: People don’t say these things, let alone say them to other people. Natasha is probably Fielding’s greatest victim with her limited page-count, non-existent characterisation, and atrocious word-vomit that’s intended to prove she’s too opinionated and high-strung for Darcy.

The Wickham and Darcy of the story, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, are almost as poorly served as Natasha. With Pride and Prejudice as your template, I was expecting a little more drama related to these two and its actually laughable how unimportant it all is. Fielding obviously can’t have Cleaver run off with Bridget’s younger sister (whose also a minor) without drastically changing the tone of the story, so she has Julio (he has maybe two lines) be the catalyst for Darcy’s heroics at the end.

Bridget Jones’s Diary is a sometimes fun, oftentimes sincere portrayal of a woman’s neuroticism and insecurities, I just wish it was a little more concise when it came to its storytelling and a lot more expansive when it comes to its main romance.

Also, the book can be placed on the much vaunted list of Books that are, in fact, Not Better than the Movie.

if any of the characters from this book had been born two centuries earlier, they'd have died any number of Oregon Trail-like deaths or perhaps been sensibly culled in armed conflict. they'd have had a right to bitch up this bitchstorm like three bitches in a bitchboat, but unable to find publication, because Victorian England had the good breeding and stiff upper lip to send squealing little piglets like Bridget Jones into the convent, and her tribe of gormless chav fratboys would have been too busy dodging impressment gangs and learning euclidean geometry to engage in all this raffishness.

I only award it a third star because I one time was at this horrible party, and the following conversation ensued:

intolerable guy: I feel silly but I'm reading Bridget Jones's Diary; unoffensive SO of iTG just read it---
uSO-iTG: I loved the movie and then I thought the book was great---
iTG: so I borrowed it when she was done---
nick black: y'all went and saw a movie version of Bridget Jones's Diary?!?! jesus?! do you support the doctrine of racial holy war?
all: ???
nick black: you know, 14 words, etc...i mean, i'm not the one reading Bridget Jones's Diary...
all: ???
nick black: oh! my goodness! excuse me i thought you meant The Turner Diaries, William Luther Pierce's controversial white power thriller. hah! i don't know what i could have been thinking.
iTG: no.
nick black: right right, Bridget Jones is about fornication, not extremism!

so yeah, that conversation was pretty much derailed.

〝when someone leaves you, apart from missing them, apart from the fact that the whole little world you've created together collapses, and that everything you see or do reminds you of them, the worst is the thought that they tried you out and, in the end, the whole sum of parts adds up to you got stamped REJECT by the one you love. How can you not be left with the personal confidence of a passed over british rail sandwich?〞

★★★★★

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS. it's exactly like the movie. it's exactly like reading a romcom. the. exact. same. it's relatable, the romance is really cute, there are so many dramatic plot twists and the friendships are SO good. the humor is the perfect british wittiness and I laughed out loud multiple times. it's the perfect lighthearted read if you just want something comforting.

I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by helen fielding, she is the perfect bridget and I honestly had to check that it wasn't renée zellweger narrating it.

please check the trigger warnings before reading this because there is a lot of focus on food, weight and calorie counting.

cawpile: 9.07
ig: @winterrainreads

I am not Bridget Jones!

My classmate beside me opened a cool notebook with a red leather jacket and a heart sculpted in the middle. I asked her what she's writing in her notebook while my professor keep on talking about carbohydrates, ruminants, and whatever scientific words with -lysis in the end. Because everyone is bored and so do I, I kept on sneaking her notebook and she kept on hiding it. Sorry, playing inside the classroom is illegal but my rules, my rules!

So I asked here face-to-face, as if I'm Boy Abunda and she's Tony Gonzaga talking about Piolo Pascual. n  video>n Oops! Okay, back to her. So I asked her if that was her diary and she said yes. Okay, so yeah, it was her diary and my curiosity wanted to jump so high. So when she lean beside her friend, I open her notebook and, Voila!, I can't understand her handwritten. Stupid and I remembered... Bridget Jones's Diary.

What's with this book that everyone is reading it, I find it corny, boring and I can't relate a thing, and my friend said because I'm a guy not a girl like Bridget. So I asked her that not all girls are like Bridget and she tweeted me, "My weight (and body) = frustrations in life". I got her point but she's not that fat and she had an average height of a Filipina. She's cool and a total geek. Maybe she should improve her inner poise to boost her confidence. Does it include confidence? Never mind.

So Bridget Jones's Diary is like a normal diary of a frustrated girl who wanted to change and keep her New Year's resolution intact on the first page of her diary. I think everyone doing this but Bridget wanted to change and of course she wanted a boyfriend. This is not a daily dose of everyday writing, somehow... Bridget only write some interesting events in her life. Unlike me, who keep my everyday course in my stupid journal which en up to be a daily to-do list. Ugh! I'm not really good in keeping.

Not all books ended happy ending. Well, I don't know with Bridget but I think she got what she wanted in the end except some excess fats she got from too much eating and if all girls can memorize calories of each food like Bridget's ABC, I find it cool but weird. Do all girl conscious with their sizes and do they really keep track of their boyfriends? Okay. Sorry, I think I just read Bridget's private notebook. Uhum!

Next stop... looking for a copy of the movie. Some reviewer and friends said that the movie is better than the book. Here I go again, raiding pirated CDs and illegal videos online. For those like Bridget, there is always a way (and time?) to look (and dispose?) for Mr. Perfect (Mr. Right?). For people like me... I don't have any idea. Just keep believing and do not mind your size. Click! Click! Smile!

A quirky but lovable Bridget is trudging through her 30’s with a lot of well-intentioned advice from friends, family, and Cosmo.

Although this book is delightfully hilarious, it hits on feelings on insecurity and the impossible standards women face: wanting to be independent but also craving companionship and connection, being aloof labels one as an ice queen but show interest and you are desperate.

This book is set in a time before cell phones, and I would love for someone to modernize this classic.

A perfect and relatable read if you are looking to pick up some light summer reading!

Major trigger warnings if you suffer from disordered eating.

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango

I'm torn as to how to rate this. On the one hand, Fielding nails the humor. Humor is very hard to capture in literature and I often found myself smiling or chuckling. But when I wasn't, I was exasperated with Bridget Jones. Fielding nails her too. Why do women insist on being proud of being so... shallow? Idiotic, blind about themselves and their lives, and obsessed with all the wrong things in life? I didn't sympathize with Bridget at all, nor did I really care about the holes she dug herself into. This book is the perfect example of why I don't read chick lit. I just don't relate to this definition of what women are. More than that, I'm embarrassed by it.

I also didn't buy into the love story. I didn't really get why Bridget liked him other than he was there. But what else than a shallow love interest did I expect from Bridget? I'm glad that the Pride and Prejudice undertones were not blatant or I might of cried that Fielding so disgraced the characters. I liked the way Renee Zellweger played Bridget so much more than the way this is written. At least in the movie she has a brain and a personality worth something and she seems a little above all the nonsense around her. One of these days I'd like to read chick lit with a protagonist I can relate to, but then again, would it really be light and chick-lit-ish?

Um dos “chick-lits” mais legais que eu li na vida. Acho que nunca ri tanto lendo um livro. Eu amo todos os personagens, mas principalmente amo os pais, que são muito doidos. Fiquei tão envolvido. O livro nem tem um grande plot, mas adorei vivenciar esse ano todo pelo ponto de vista da Bridget.

Tem as questões com o peso da Bridget que, pelo menos no livro, me parece uma leve romantização nesse desespero que ela tem em se manter magra. Por mais que seja a realidade de muitas mulheres, e não vejo problema em tratar com naturalidade, acho que o livro trata do assunto sem explicitar que é uma questão prejudicial a saúde mental, além da física.

I don't know if I've ever identified more with a fictional character. Bridget Jones is a slightly older, much skinnier, equally eccentric single girl and we're practically the same person. Why did I wait so long to read this gem?! It was love from page one. The diary starts on January 1 and takes readers all the way through the year and all through her exploits, beauty and dieting struggles, dating catastrophes and more. It's zany and hilarious and I can relate on so many levels. Her parents are a little nuts (specifically her mom), her friends are all married or dating, and her coworkers are insufferable (save her super hot boss!), no wonder she drinks so much! A fantastic read, I can't wait to read the rest in the series and to watch all the movies. Why did I wait soo long in my life! Wonderful screwball English comedy!