My attempt at the 2009 100+ Reading Challenge starts here.
Fate has brought you to this sketchbook - a slice of life behind the eyes of a seventeen-year-old Filipina residing in sunny England.
Marie Digby - Miss Invisible
As the week draws to a close, I’m itching to get my hands on The Time Traveler’s Wife. I really should stop making Waterstones a home. I guess the lady who runs the till is tired of seeing my face already. Lol. :]
School is holding me back from getting on with the 100+ Reading Challenge.
I’ve got my Chemistry key assessment tomorrow. It’s not the stuff about Benzene, thanks. I’ll probably live. Still a few more Maths questions to go through, though. I am in grave need of Visine.
I want to start revising already. But the stomach is growling. I’ll say a quick hello to the refrigerator first. ^_^
Note: I wrote this review about a month ago. It’s been saved on my computer for a while now, gathering dust. I was pretty juvenile when I wrote this so I apologize for any cringe-worthy moments you might encounter while you’re at it.
Title: Bridget Jones’s Diary
Author: Helen Fielding
Rating: 3.5/5
Book 1 of 100 (The 100+ Reading Challenge)
Right, I have to admit. I pretty much suck at writing reviews. So here goes my feeble attempt at writing one. As you all know (or not - I’m not really sure. Lol), I’m resolving to write a review on every book I read this year - and maybe in years to come, hopefully - so I can keep track of my reading. I am sure that everybody in the world knows how much of an amnesiac I am so if I don’t write this now, I am most probably going to forget everything that I feel about the book when I wake up in the morning.
But, no. That’s not really going to happen because I love books. I don’t usually forget things that I have read. Lol. But you know what I mean about the amnesiac part.
Oh, yes. I’m writing this on Notepad at the moment due to snail-pace Internet connection. I’ll post this on my blog in a day or two.
Silly me for picking Bridget Jones’s Diary as the first book to read in 2009. Don’t ask me how but I had a pretty rough transition from 2008 to this year. Don’t get me wrong - I adore Bridget Jones but somehow, in the back of my mind, I don’t feel that this book suits me at all. Like a musical composition, I do believe that books are written not just by the author but also for a specific reader. I think each piece is tailor-made and it may just take some time to find your match. Sure, it was a good laugh and all that. But I’m not certain that I’m prepared to read more books in which characters cuss in between every syllable they utter. You know what I mean? Lol. But, then again, the story was set in modern-day Britain. What was I thinking?
And, yes, I did watch the film ages ago. I just didn’t expect that much in the book. ^_^
Okay. A thing or two about the book - if you haven’t heard about it yet. Girl (Jones) gets ordinary job after graduating from the Uni of Bangor (seriously, did Helen Fielding have a thing against this University? Why name and shame? ^_^). Girl gets posh guy (Cleave) as his boss and boyfriend thereafter. Girl also meets bumblebee-sock-wearing nerdy-but-rich guy (Darcy) and makes her feelings of disgust known to him right from the start (and his to her). Girl blushes about granny knickers. Posh guy reveals (nearly at the end) he’s engaged with American girl. Girl dumps posh guy (or was it the other way around?). Girl gets new job at TV company. Girl embarasses herself at a live news update by climbing up a pole instead of down (I totally laughed at this one. Lol). Girl’s pathetic excuse for a mother (Mrs Jones) gets hooked up with a Portuguese bishonen (did I just use the term bishonen? Lol) and runs off with him with loads of money. Talk about estafa. Bumblebee-sock-wearing nerdy-but-rich guy saves the day and, thus, happily ever after.
I do love this book. Forget what I said earlier about how it’s not a good year-starter. It’s probably not one of the grandest I’ve ever read but, still, I like it. Actually, if you think about it, Bridget Jones’s Diary should be everyone’s year-starter since you get a glimpse of how NOT to live your new year in a paperback. The story starts off with a list of New Year’s resolutions and gradually enters the days in which each resolution is broken. Poor Bridget. But brave, nevertheless. I particularly like the bits that come at the start of each diary entry where she scribbles down her daily calorie intake and all that jazz. It seems funny in a way, but to her, it must be a serious thing.
Her mum is one of my most-loved characters. Charming, prim and proper, Pam has her own way of making everyone cry. Leaving Bridget’s Dad, for instance, for a broken-English-speaking guy. It just makes me think of how weird the world can be at times.
I’m not too sure that I like how it is written - I mean, it’s very unlikely that a person can write in his or her own diary almost every second of the day. But it’s still entertaining, nevertheless, and made me want to travel back to London once again. As for Mark Darcy - well, he’s drool-worthy, alright.
Bridget Jones is today’s Elizabeth Bennet and her diary is where love (and stress!), friendship, and career are all rolled into one.
