After reading this book I've come to the following conclusion: When people say that they only have time for movies, not books, they need to read a different type of book.

Sex in the City (the book) took me about 2.5 hours to read, the same time as a longish movie and I learned about as much as I do from a chick flick. It's rather obvious when you think about it. A cheesy chick movie like How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days is neither deep nor revelatory, complicated or precise. Bushnell's work reminds me of a watered-down Edith Warton novel filled with caricatures of people that seem like they were modeled after a real-world version. But then again, what author doesn't fashion their characters after real people?

Bushnell's journalistic talent is obvious. She throws out turns of phrase that any newspaper editor would salivate for and the story whips and turns at the pace of a race horse. However, I would argue that the book lacks some focus and seems to sprawl from one character to the next (but then again, that may be because I started to skim at some point.)

I respect her work as a writer and pioneer of chick-lit, but at the same time I'm always left a little bit disatistifed. Good thing I didn't see the movie--yet.

I love the TV show, and I've watched the whole thing several times, so I've been meaning to read this book for about five years now. It was nothing like I expected. Nothing like the show, really, either.

The thing that I like best about the show is that you get to know and love all the characters and their struggles with their careers, men, and most of all, coming to terms with themselves. But the book is nothing like that. Plus, the show is funny, and the book...well, at least to me, wasn't. Mostly it was depressing. The first half of the book made it seem like it's impossible for women over thirty to find men because no men want women that old, they want 20 year olds who let them treat them like crap. It made women seem hopeless, and that men would inevitably disappoint, manipulate women into getting what they wanted, and leave. Basically the entire first half of the book made it seem like men have all the power in relationships, and women have to either take it or end up single and alone.

The second half of the book made me never want to be in a relationship anyway. It basically seemed to be saying that relationships are a slow wearing away of your individuality, spirit, and sanity. It seemed to be showing how relationships degrade people, bring out their worst, make people petty, jealous, insecure, and miserable. After reading this book, I really want to take anti-depressants, because it seems to be saying that everyone's goal in life is to find a relationship, and once you find one, you're inevitably disappointed and slowly driven insane. Or at least that you're bound to be miserable either way.

I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book to--it was very depressing to me. Maybe a person who is already happily married and has not a single doubt in their relationship.

This was ridiculous. It was incredibly self-indulgent and trite. It's incredible that someone read this collection of articles and said, "Hey! Let's turn this into a wildly funny, intelligent, and timely series that will win Emmys and Jill's Heart!" Avoid the book, rent the series.

Αν μισήσατε τη σειρά, φανταστείτε ότι ο σεναριογράφος έκανε καταπληκτική δουλειά μεταφέροντας το απόλυτο τίποτα στη μικρή οθόνη. Του αξίζουν πραγματικά συγχαρητήρια.
Εγώ, απ' την άλλη, σκέφτομαι πόσα αθώα δέντρα θυσιάζονται για να τυπωθούν σκουπίδια σαν κι αυτό και με πιάνει μια μελαγχολία...

Reseña pronto. Al final se salvó. At finally this book saves Review soon.

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.

Read this after seeing the TV show in my late teens. It's nothing like the show - not a great read.

The first I feel that the filmed version transcends the written one.

Ouch, ouch, my soul.

Please don't misunderstand. I like vanilla cupcakes top heavy with fluffy pink frosting as much as the next guy. That's why the show is a longstanding guilty pleasure of mine. The difference between the show and the book is that while acquisitive, status-obsessed party monsters with less depth than a paper cut comprise the bulk of the characters on the show as in the book, the show manages to flesh them out into comically fallible, three-dimensional human beings who, even if you find them repugnant, you can find weirdly fascinating and feel empathy toward.

The book: not so much. I had to read several passages multiple times because it was difficult to stay sufficiently engaged to pay attention.

"'It's cute. It's light. You know. It's not Tolstoy.'

'I'm not trying to be Tolstoy,' Carrie said. But of course, she was."

If Carrie Bradshaw really is the author's alter ego, you have to wonder. I would have settled for Fitzgerald. But these portraits of the power-hungry, the socially climbing, and the upwardly mobile aren't Gatsbyesque. They're ghastly.

Upon finishing this book, I felt like I'd consumed a dozen pink-frosted cupcakes. I apologized to my system for inundating it with crap and promised myself that I would eat more vegetables. And read Tolstoy.

Check out my reading vlog for this book (including a SATC skit): https://youtu.be/Jarg6RMOotk

Ah, I love the series and movies so much that this hurts. I went into reading this knowing this was going to be nothing like the show, but that still didn't stop this book from disappointing me. Not because it's not like the show, but because of how badly this book has aged.

This is essentially a bunch of columns and interviews the author did for a magazine back in the 90s, and boy does it show. The people that are featured in this book are shallow and so unlikeable. It makes it worse that these people are real people, just with their names changed. Chapter 8 in particular, the one about threesomes, made my skin crawl. It was essentially a group of straight men talking about what they look for in threesomes and what women should do. Again, I get this is just a documentation on real people, but I was highly uncomfortable with the misogyny and lowkey homophobia depicted in this book.

Sometimes the narrator would slip into using the D word when referencing lesbians. Sometimes I was confused whether the narrator was the narrator or Carrie Bradshaw. There was no redeemable 'character' or anyone to personally like in this book. Even Samantha, who I love in the show but was also introduced as a powerful woman in this, slipped into the girl-on-girl hate that is so apparent from every female character. Even from the males. Ah, I just couldn't handle all the judgment. Even though I'm not a young female in New York, I still felt judged. This book really did make me feel worse about myself as a person.

There's plenty of things I took issue with this book which I highlight in my Sex and the City reading vlog if you would like to check it out - I also parody Carrie and Samantha from the show (even though my acting is terrible, I'd still say I was a little bit better than the book haha). The only reason this is a 2 star is because of CAWPILE and the fact I had to rate logic a 10, since this is somewhat non-fiction.

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 : )

One of the biggest disappointments ever for me. I am a huge fan of the show, and this book was just horrible. The series bears almost no resemblance to the book. A few of the character names are the same and the Carrie/Big characters are kind of the same in the book and show. I really feel that the TV scriptwriters did an amazing job at developing the series' well-rounded characters from this mess of a book. Actually, I don't even want to call this a book... There is virtually no plot or character development. The book is a collection of seemingly unconnected short essays in interview format. Bushnell owes a debt of gratitude to the screenplay writer who was genius enough to take her twisted mess of words and turn them into the wonderful stories that we know from the series.