At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'"

Released on Sunday, May 16, 2004 at St. Luke's Parish Hall (Fryer Hall), Oak Ave. in Metuchen, New Jersey USA.

Behind the auditorium on book tables. Minimum contribution suggested.

I caught my first bookcrossing book! MsLadyLib: Thanks for releasing this book.

I saw this on the "Hunting" pages, and I decided to stop into St Luke's when I was in the area. Lots of books available for a low suggested donation. It took me a while to find this book, but eventually I did. I left twice the suggested donation, I was so pleased.

I'm in the middle of one book, have one more to read first, and my wife has already said she wants to read it, but I will release it when we've finished with it.

So, within two days I've released my first book and caught my first book.

WARNING: CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS!
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I started reading this book today. It represents a diary of an entire year for a young woman living and working in London, during (I guess) the late 80's/early 90's. I say that because that's when I was working in the City, and some of the descriptions given so far are fairly familiar to me.

So far, I've read the entries for January.

The comedy in this book is mainly to do with Bridget's insecurities; her concerns about her weight, smoking, alcohol intake, and most importantly, her love-life, or lack of it. It starts off with her New Year's resolutions; an entire list of do's and don'ts.

While the book is pretty funny, I'm not sure it's that realistic. Typically, do young women really focus so much on their weight, for example? Are they SO concerned about dating?

As an ex-pat Brit myself, I wonder how much of the story Americans are able to relate to; it seems that a lot of the humor is very Brit-centric.

Perhaps I'm just overreacting - perhaps, at 40, I'm too old to relate to the character....or perhaps, it's because I'm a man!

Well, I've read February......perhaps it's because I'm a "smug married"!

CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS
======================

You'll notice I bumped up the rating by two points. I've read right through November, and I've figured out the problem I've had with this book.

Fielding has captured this character all too well. It's certainly not a work of high-literature, because it's written in the character of someone who isn't highbrow. It's incredibly funny.

I just discovered an interesting thing. I never saw the movie, but knew that Colin Firth and Hugh Grant were in it. Except, having read the book, I could swear that Fielding had written the Mark Darcy character for Grant, and the Daniel Cleaver part I could imagine Colin Firth playing. But those roles are actually reversed. What's funny is that there are references to both Hugh Grant (and Liz Hurley, just after *THAT* incident) and Colin Firth in the book. Now tell me THAT wasn't planned!

My problem is with Bridget's character, who I find incredibly irritating, because she's so insecure. I remember women like this from the days when I was a singleton! Constantly complaining about her lack of a love-life and how badly she's treated by guys, but if a "nice guy" like me asked her out, she wouldn't be interested. She'd carry on complaining until she found the next jerk to mistreat her!

So look how this book is affecting me - it must be good!

As soon as I'm finished (very soon), I'm going to pass it to my (non-BXing) Wife to read. I'll be interested in her reaction. Perhaps I'll share.

I started a discussion about this book in the book talk forum.

I was interested to find out that the plot of BJD was based on Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice"; which I have not yet read; and that Colin Firth being mentioned in the book, and getting the part of Mark Darcy in the Movie, was an "inside" joke, since Firth played Mr. Darcy in the famous BBC Adaptation of P&P, referred to in BJD!

UPDATE 12/3/04: I just finished Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and my journal entry for that book will reveal how close I thought the plot was (or wasn't!).

On loan to a friend of my wife.

Alas, the colleague of my Wife was not inclined to journal this book (which she read in one day and enjoyed). All I know is that it went somewhere else in central NJ, and is now back in my hands.

Released on Friday, July 16, 2004 at Wegmans Woodbridge - 15 Woodbridge Center Drive in Woodbridge, New Jersey USA.

I'm going grocery shopping at around 8:15-8:30pm. I'll almost certainly leave the book outside the front of the store somewhere. I'll leave details when I get back.

UPDATE: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I left the book on a bench outside the entrance on the right hand side. Even though the weather report didn't predict it, and it was warm and dry when we went in, by the time we came out, it had rained, but the book was gone. I hope it didn't get wet!

This book is still out in the wild. In any case I wanted to add an extra journal entry, since last night I finally saw the movie based on this book, "Bridget Jones's Diary", starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.

If you ignore the book, the movie was not bad. Pretty funny actually. The problem comes when comparing the movie to the book. It starts out pretty good, with dialog and details straight from the book. There are scenes, and indeed entire threads of story missing, though, and then there are added events that didn't happen at all in the book.

While I was irritated by Bridget's insecurities in the book, Bridget was more likeable in the movie, although bad things often happened to her, which made her more sympathetic.

Helen Fielding (who wrote the book) co-wrote the screenplay, so I guess she gave the thumbs-up for changes that were made.

Released on Friday, July 16, 2004 at Wegmans Woodbridge - 15 Woodbridge Center Drive in Woodbridge, New Jersey USA.

Accidentally removed the "In the wild" status, so retroactively re-released this. See details of original release above.