Confessions of a Shopaholic

Here is basically the fluffiest book I've read in the last year. You've probably heard of Confessions of a Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella. They made a movie out of it, too. I saw the movie and really liked it, so I figured I may as well read the book since it would be a quick read and it's one I've very vaguely had my eye on for ages.

It was a quick read, it took me about a day and a half. It is, pure and simple, chick lit. Becky Bloomwood's your narrator, a financial journalist who's way in debt and has a serious addiction to shopping. This is a pretty satisfying book, I mean not filling, it's satisfying in the way eating angel food cake is satisfying, not in a meat and potatoes kind of way.

There were some notable deviations in the transition from book to movie. For one thing, they picked up the whole mess and moved it from London to New York. While I imagine this was done because it was an American-made film, actually I think it also had the added benefit of removing the Bridget Jones comparisons. It's not really that like Bridget Jones, but Becky definitely has that affliction of spinning ridiculous stories in an attempt to get out of things that seems to be common to chick lit heroines everywhere and especially Bridget.

And while this is overall an extremely fluffy book, it's got a rather serious, almost, I don't know, sinister (is there a milder word for that? it's not quite what I mean) slant, in Becky's addiction to shopping. It really is an addiction, and addictions are always a bit scary.

Anyway, this was a fun, easy read, and I'll probably be thinking wistfully of it once I'm deep into the quarter and reading Ovid.