Biggest takeaway from reading this is just HOW GOOD of an adaptation the show is

The movie was such a blockbuster that one would expect the book to be at least a little good but it is just full of little anecdotes from trashy lifestyle magazines for women. It is so sad that sex sells so much that people ignore any nonsense in the form of falsity and artificiality for it.

Extremely stupid book! I wouldn't even call it a real book. This is a pointless series of boring articles about the exaggerated way of life in New York. I am grateful that there is a series to fix the situation, because the book is so disappointing! I love the series, but this is an absolute waste of time here. It doesn't even deserve a star!

The show is way much better then this enormously confusing book. Usually I do not quite, but I just couldn't with this... I'm gonna stick with the show.

plotless and pointless

I would have actually given it 1 star but i happen to like it in the beginning.

All i can say is i despised this book and i practically rush read it just to get it over with.I mean the way the men and women are portrayed in this book makes me physically ill. I had to force myself to finish it, all the while i was reading this i kept wishing that i could read something i actually wanted to read.What a waste of time.I am glad it's the libraries book and i didn't waste precious money on this.

I was really looking forward to read this book, since I'm a big fan of Sex and the City. At first I thought the book was a bit confusing. I had assumed that the characters; Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte as a group of friends would be in focus, like in the TV-series. In the beginning I was therefore a bit disappointed. As I continued to read, my view changed. I really started to enjoy reading this book.
What I really liked about the book was that even though the characters and the situation was quite different from the TV-series, there was moments that I really could see similarities. Like the modelizers, the international crazy girls and the thing about threesomes. Even though the book was nothing like I had imagined, moments like these created the same atmosphere that I loved about the TV-series.

I think I read this right after the show first started on HBO. The book is nowhere near as entertaining as the show...it doesn't have the 4-girlfriends-on-the-town approach that the show takes; instead, it just focuses on some caricature of a stupid New York-type that I hate: the ones who live here like it's LA with bad weather.

If I had read this before I watched any of the episodes, I never would have turned on the show.

Ужасно разочарование! Нищо общо със сериала. В случая поздравления на сценаристите, че са сътворили блокбъстър от това нещо.

Didn’t hate it and actually am baffled as to why so many people did, especially so vehemently.

Let me back up a bit. I have a lukewarm fascination with the show. It’s bubble-gum sweet and draws you in, but at the same time I always found it difficult to relate to such a glorification of capitalism, egotism and selfishness. It was always this weird, nuanced, emotional rollercoaster for me, because it was great to have women be sexually liberated and daring to be free and unlikable and selfish and not sacrificing their everything for the conventional things women are supposed to like and want. But as all feminist-ish friendly shows of the era, and as bubblegum and celebrity feminism itself, the social structures this kind of narrative enforces and glorifies are as harmful as the ones we laud it for subverting. So you know, my general feelings remain as “meh” and the show always stays in the realm of “guilty pleasure” and “hate watch” for me. So this is where I come from, unable to actually call myself a fan of the show, despite having watched it more than twice. Both movies included.

When I found this book I thought it would be perfect for the little bad-book-club we have with a friend, where we try to read exclusively bad, and mostly popular, books, so we can vent about them later and bond and have fun and not be petty at all. I thought going to the source of Sex and the City, the fountain of vain, privileged, thin, white, women, would actually fit our book-club vibe perfectly. The myriad one-star reviews, and did-not-finish shelvings promised me so.
Alas,’ twas not meant to be.

The book reads more as a sociological narration of how mating worked in 90s NY than anything else. The narrator doesn’t take sides, nor tries to glorify the women’s lifestyles or sympathize with them. It felt more like she was describing the modern conundrums these women find themselves in, living in a faux-liberated era and being caught between changing gender roles and expectations. They have money, beauty and want to experience everything promised, freedom, good sex, and romance. But they still are chased by old phantoms, most desperately wanting a husband, maybe children, and fidelity. All while men and social conventions judge them with both old and new standards thus rendering them unable to succeed in all they want.

The characters are not made to be likeable. They are presented as people molded by the fast rhythms of the city, by absurd situations, vile men, exceedingly strict beauty standards. They are hardened, cynical, egotistic, opportunistic women, who can’t connect with their true feelings and wants. The glorification of this lifestyle is also absent, a fact that elevates this book so much more from the movie. Absent are the fashion shows, the fawning over manolos, the infatuation with the posh and glam sparkles the tv show thrived on. We don’t have all that jazz to blind us from what is really going on, from the story this book has to say. Instead we get to be a cold observer of their lives, each with its ups and downs, and the most prevalent feeling in all of this, is a kind of sadness. It’s the same kind of sadness I have when I think about my mother’s life, caught between housework and career, being swallowed, tired and overworked by both, because as fast as the economy changed to accommodate women entering the workforce, domestic life remained stuck in the conventions of the previous century. So while these women are not likeable, it’s very hard to be overly critical and judge them harshly. It’s the kind of nuance and complexity real life has, and the book presents that wonderfully. They’re not idols, nor villains; they are what they had to become to survive.

Sure enough, with the cultural obsession and glorification of fashion and its commerce, the tv adaptation strayed from this portrayal, transforming these characters into role models. Women making it, navigating this life and thriving. It was written as most American tv is, with optimism, likeable characters, and a purpose to promote a certain type of lifestyle while attaching positive feelings to it. Maybe this is why so many people hated the book. In comparison it’s gloomy and full of people you really wouldn’t want hanging around you. Gone are the tales of talented Carrie and fearless Samantha. Gone is the girly vibe of sisterhood, good food and shoes. Instead we get something very close to real life, and real people and our sweet escapism comes crashing down.

I seem to be one of the rare ones here, but I am a fan of the show who actually enjoyed this book. I decided to read it not because I thought there would be something new and exciting to behold, or because I was expecting a riveting, entrancing novel. Rather, because I was curious about the origins of the characters and plotlines in one of my favorite television series. Most of the stories from the first season of the tv show are lifted from this book. However, some of the characters are different (in the book Charlotte is not the preppy friend of Carrie but rather the love-jaded English woman we only see in the pilot episode of the show). The book doesn't focus on Carrie and her friends from Carrie's perspective, rather it is told by an outside narrator and focuses on several different people. I also liked seeing a new dimension to Carrie; she is still as neurotic as ever, but also a little sarcastic, and we learn of her childhood in Connecticut, humble beginnings in New York (not able to afford furniture, so she sleeps on a foam sheet covered by her only possession-- a mink coat) and even get to meet her parents. Overall, an entertaining read for fans of the Sex and the City television show.

There are very few books I quit reading, even if I don't like them, because I am compelled with book guilt most of the time.

I did not make it through this. All I can say is the writers for the HBO series REALLY had some vision, because the show was about 4000 times better than the book : )