Book review -- Confessions of a Shopaholic

I should say something. I should say, "Janice, I don't fancy Tom. He's too tall and his breath smells." But how on earth can I say that?

"Well, do give him my love," I hear myself saying instead.

"I certainly will," she says, and pauses. "Does he have your London number?"

Aarrgh!

"I think so," I lie, smiling brightly. "And he can always get me here if he wants." Now everything I say sounds like some saucy double entendre. I can just imagine how this conversation will be reported back to Tom. "She was asking all about your starter home. And she asked you to call her!"

Life would be a lot easier if conversations were rewindable and erasable, like videos. Or if you could instruct people to disregard what you just said, like in a courtroom. Please strike from the record all references to starter homes and limed oak kitchens.

-- Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Against my better judgement, I picked up Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a Shopaholic, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (Can you tell I've been catching up on Popular Fiction?) It was very Bridget Jones-ey; very Brit, mostly thought-speech. But whilst I fell asleep watching Bridget Jones prance around on the screen, I found myself entirely glued to Rebecca Bloomwood and her many adventures. (May be time for me to pick up Bridget Jones' Diary -- the book.) I think that, in the end, the fact that it had any semblance of a plot at all was what surprised me the most.

There's a reason why Chick Lit is Chick Lit. I imagine guys would be bored out of their minds if they actually knew all of the thoughts that go through our head during the course of the day, just as I imagine I would be, if privy to every nanosecond of theirs. Everything in moderation, baby.

But it makes for good, light reading, in one sitting -- I laughed out loud a couple of times. Fun to pick out all the "I totally know what that feels like!" moments too. I can't quite believe that I just discovered this. Highly addictive.

(Please don't turn it into a movie.)