Bridget Jones's Diary
by Helen Fielding
★ Top 25 book of 1996 · #14 on Best Books of 1996
Told as a personal diary, this novel follows a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a single thirty-something working in London. She records her thoughts on her career, body image, bad habits, family, friends and love life.
Best for: Readers who enjoy a funny, confessional take on single life in London
Bridget Jones's Diary is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar.
What Bridget Jones's Diary is about
Bridget Jones is thirty-something, single, working in London, and keeping a diary of one very eventful year. Helen Fielding's 1996 novel takes the form of those daily entries, where Bridget tallies her weight, her drinking, her cigarettes and her job worries with unsparing honesty, along with her hopes for love.
As the months pass, she gets tangled up with her charming, handsome boss, Daniel Cleaver, and crosses paths with Mark Darcy, a stuffy human-rights barrister she is quite sure she dislikes. The two were childhood playmates, reintroduced at a New Year's party by her mother, who is forever hoping to see her daughter married off to someone rich and handsome. Around her, a loyal circle of friends serves as the family she chooses, while awkward relatives, including a groping 'Uncle Geoffrey', supply the embarrassments. Funny and self-mocking, it is a portrait of modern single life that many readers see in themselves. Critics have credited it as the "urtext" of the contemporary chick lit movement, and it had sold over two million copies worldwide by 2006.
Bridget Jones's Diary on the Best Books of 1996
Bridget Jones's Diary came out in 1996. Of the 38 books first published in 1996 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #14 on our Best Books of 1996 list.
Why it made the list: 413 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (54 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1996 list
- 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself Steve Chandler, #12
- Crash Jerry Spinelli, #13
- The Night Stalker Philip Carlo, #15
- The Highly Sensitive Person Elaine N. Aron, #16
See all Best Books of 1996 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1995 Best Books of 1997.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 312 want to read it, 17 are reading it now and 84 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.6 out of 5 from 54 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 76 | 55% |
| Reader love | 5 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 63 | 20% |
Questions about Bridget Jones's Diary
When was Bridget Jones's Diary published?
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding was first published in 1996.
Was Bridget Jones's Diary one of the best books of 1996?
Bridget Jones's Diary is #14 on BookWard's Best Books of 1996, out of 38 1996 books that cleared our data bar. 413 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (54 ratings).
Why is Bridget Jones's Diary on the Best Books of 1996 list?
413 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (54 ratings).
More of the best books of 1996
- A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin, #1
- The Green Mile Stephen King, #2
- Forbidden Knowledge Roger Shattuck, #3
- Push Sapphire, #4
- Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk, #5
- Neverwhere Neil Gaiman, #6
See the full Best Books of 1996, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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