The 305 Greatest Books - #199: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

I should note that this book is from the BBC's Big Read list, which is a compilation of survey responses across the UK asking for the general public's favorite novels during 2003. With that in mind, there are many books which would seem out of place on any other "100 Greatest Books" lists, this one included. With that being said, Bridget Jones's Diary was so much fun. I laughed quite a bit and generally enjoyed it. It was far from taxing to read and I breezed through it. It turned out to be the perfect beach read on my vacation. It is also very far from "higher lit" that I would equate with the 100 Greatest Books. But it is just simply a fun book to read. I was invested in Brigit's year and I loved the setup of the diary format throughout the year. The book also lends itself perfectly to being made into a movie, hence the reason I am not surprised whatsoever that it was made into a very popular movie (however I have not seen it at this point in time). Overall, it was just an easy to read, fun book, where you could turn off your brain and enjoy the drama on the page. 

The 306 Greatest Books #73 - Tom Jones

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Observer, and My Book Lists.

I found that although Tom Jones is a rather long book (my copy was over 850 pages) I greatly enjoyed reading it. The author is more of a narrator than an impartial observer. He readily makes comments throughout the book that makes you feel like you are sitting by a fire listening to him relay the story. It was definitely a different approach than most I have read and I greatly enjoyed it. The story was exquisite. It is about a bastard, Tom, who was abandoned by his mother to be raised by a very benevolent man. Although, I did not readily agree with some of the lessons at the end of the book (like how birth makes more of a difference on who the boy is, not just his character) I still enjoyed it and the ending did bring a tear to my cheek. Throughout the story the author kept making Tom's situation worse and worse and I thought that there was no way to bring him back in a believable manner, but it worked out rather well in the end. I definitely enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a few months to read it.