Bridget Jones's Diary

This book is indeed a “creation of comic genius,” as Nick Hornby blurbed. The movie didn’t do anything for me; I found Renée Zellweger quite blah, and Hugh Grant was playing the British cad as usual. However, the book was so funny I had a hard time putting it down.

Basically, it is about Bridget, a British “Everywoman” who falls into the clutches of her slimy boss, Daniel, while on a quest for the traditional Holy Grail of womanhood—true love. One of the things I most enjoyed about this chick-lit classic was the rather graphic booze-and-smoking sessions, as well as… show more.

This is the only book that made me laugh so hard on an airplane that spit flew out of my mouth, embarrassing me and horrifying the stranger sitting to my left. Other books I've read are gorgeously written with deep meaning or an edge-of-your-seat mystery.

While I've enjoyed those, too, this made me smile so much that my dimples ached. I love a flawed character who's self-deprecating and utterly loveable. I rooted for Bridget and didn't want her story to end. Luckily, the sequel, in my opinion, was equally as good.

I’ve never been fond of the ‘chick-lit’ term because it scares away male readers, who think the book will be jammed with vagina jokes and anti-men tirades. Yes, this is written by a woman and about a woman, but a woman who wants to get laid.

Partly I like the Gen-x vibe, and partly I like the ‘90s (now retro) London setting, but mostly I like Bridget and all the characters—funny, horny, flawed, prone to bad choices, and outrageous. There’s some Bridget in all of us, and if not, we’d sure have fun at a party with one.

The original and best diary of a single woman in London in the 1990s. Yes, reading it now, you might cringe at the obsession about weight (and men), but that’s what we were all like back then! And many Gen Xers still carry those scars. We salute you, big up the body confident, but we probably couldn’t be you. I love reading other people’s diaries, and–fictional, this may be–the themes are universal. 

Relationships with friends, food, and mothers–it’s all here and very funny. This list includes the tenuous link about when Bridget had to do a speech at her company… show more.

What I love about this book is the full-circle journey that Bridget takes throughout the story. It was so easy to relate to Bridget’s struggles, such as ‘eat less, drink less, smoke less.’ The book gives us all hope. By the end, she still eats, drinks, and smokes, but she is happier and has moved forward.

I could relate to Bridget in many ways. As a young radio journalist in the 1990s, I was often sent to do live reports that went disastrously wrong. I’ve never made ‘blue soup,’ I’ve also had a fair share of kitchen calamities.  I think… show more.

How can you not love Bridget? How she stumbles through life, all the while trying so hard to be cool. Searching for a second chance at love despite betrayals and humiliations.

Meanwhile, she notes her days and nights in her diary–the fluctuating weight, cigarette and cocktail counts, and the worry about ending up alone and being eaten by wild dogs. The result is a character so human and funny that it hurts. Write on, Bridget. 

Yes, I know, we’ve all seen the movie, but the book is even better! I love everything essentially British about this: the men in her life, of course, but her flat, the dinner parties, the way everyone was obsessed with their weight (not always in a good way). But most of all, I love how Bridget was a heroine of her time.

I remember reading this novel and laughing out loud. It inspired a decade of chick lit and inspired three movies.

Bridget Jones first appeared in Bridget Jones’s Diary Column in The Independent newspaper. A modernization of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. It convinced a generation of women that if they moved to London, they could meet their own Mr. Darcy. This famous line from the book sums up life in the big city, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”

Follow Bridget as she changes… show more.

I’ll never forget the searing humour with which Helen Fielding depicts the party where Bridget Jones first encounters Mark Darcy and his horrible Christmas sweater.

Some of us remember the movie scene, but the book set the hilariously awkward tone. This novel is such a fast and silly read with tons of heart, zero darkness or mystery, and lots of fun. I needed that back in 2020, so I re-read this book twenty-five years after first picking it up.

Yes, this is my second recommendation for Helen Fielding!

This is the book that made me love everything romantic comedy but particularly because the emphasis is on comedy. I used to read this late into the night, crying tears of joy and sadness into my duvet. There is nothing not to like. The love triangle is a well-used trope but, in this book, all three characters are fresh, honest, and timeless meaning there isn’t the normal underdeveloped second character.