You know how sometimes you have one of those days where you just want to lock yourself away from the world and indulge in something so mindless you might never admit to publicly? For instance, after a hard day of work and play, would you rather watch The Hurt Locker or 27 Dresses? Obviously, these questions are directed towards the girls - and the boys who don’t mind a bit of girlstuff in their lives.
For anyone who understands this phenomenon, the impetus of having an unread (or even read over and over) issue of Cosmo or a book belonging to the chick-lit genre, must be very clear. Especially if that book spawned films for us to spend an inane hour of fun, or two with. So without further ado, we present to you chick-lit that has changed our lives!
 Emma (1815)
Clueless (1995)
Clueless was the film many girls growing up in the ‘90s fell in love with. Emma, Jane Austen’s light-hearted novel about Emma Woodhouse was the story that director Amy Heckerling had turned to for inspiration. While Emma had been turned into a film with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role, Clueless was younger, hipper and had more attitude - which naturally hit a chord with younger audiences (and old too!).
Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here? Was the tagline which pretty much sums up the vibe of the film. To quote main character Cher, played by Alicia Silverstone, herself: “as if!”
What is there not to love about Clueless? The amazing clothes? The Azzedine Alaia reference? Makeovers? Hot gay men? Paul Rudd? Need we say more? If you haven’t seen Clueless already, watch it now!
One would recommend watching Emma, but Gwyneth Paltrow is kind of depressing (on the whole, not just in the film).
Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996/ 2001)
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999/ 2004)
 The girl whose thoughts and words harmonized with those of so many women across the world, Bridget Jones is easily an all-time favourite character for most. Played by Renee Zellweger in the films, Bridget Jones can be best appreciated in book form. Of course the films have been popular too, but reading Bridget’s diary as if it were your own is a whole different trip.
While the first book introduces and reiterates to us the concept of f**kwittage, the sisterhood between friends and the quest to find someone to love and actually keep, the second one is slightly more on the coupled-up side, albeit still from the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t know how to deal with it too well.
Once again, Ms Austen is the force behind the whole idea, which makes one wonder why Cosmo has never given her a Fun, Fearless Female Award posthumously.
Like many women, Bridget loves girltime, breaks her diets and falls for Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Can’t say we blame her.
A quote from Bridget’s own diary that sums it all up: “I am a child of Cosmopolitan culture, have been traumatized by supermodels and too many quizzes and know that neither my personality nor my body is up to it if left to its own devices. I can’t take the pressure.”
 The Devil Wears Prada (2003/ 2006)
The book everybody said was a must-read and the film that everybody said was a must-watch. As far as entertainment quotient goes, the film adaptation is not too bad and falls squarely in the mindless-viewing slot. Plus Meryl Streep is decidedly scary as Miranda Priestley and Anne Hathaway quite the wide-eyed, eager assistant.
The book however is another story. Although it was a bestseller and all that, one can’t help but feel it was mostly because The Devil Wears Prada was a sort of tell-all about Anna Wintour, the imposing editor of Vogue and the time Lauren Weisberger spent interning at the Vogue office.
Anyone who is familiar with Weisberger’s writing at all will know she is too wordy, too draggy (we did not read the same dictionary Weisberger did) and too self-righteous. A more fun read on the vagaries of the lives and times of women obsessed with fashion, style and status would be Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes; at least the Park Avenue princesses in that book seem to enjoy life and not be too plagued by other people’s behaviours.
 The Shopaholic Series (2000-2009)
As most women would understand, spending money is fun. Spending money on clothes and knick-knacks, even more so. And hence the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, beginning with Confessions of a Shopaholic and ending at Shopaholic and Baby, is a series of books one can read without worrying about plot, morality or too harsh an ending. For instance, had Lauren Weisberger written the Shopaholic books, she would have made sure Rebecca Bloomwood, the protagonist of the series, ends up somehow burning her apartment down and losing her best friend Suze. We’re just saying.
The movie released in 2009, lacked the punch of the novels, as did the books that followed the first one, but they will definitely amuse you for a couple of days
He’s Just Not That Into You (2004 / 2009)
 Forget books that changed our lives - that is thousands of words! Here are the six words that can change yours if your love-life is as precarious as that of the people whom the self-improvement book was originally written for!
Originally from a Sex and the City episode, the line forms the basis of the book, the mini-excerpt version of the book and the film: he’s just not that into you if… (insert situations that have frustrated you over the years.
The film adaptation has several parallel storylines, one of them involving Alex (Justin Long) and Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), in which Alex educates Gigi on how to tell if he is just not that into her. Gigi by the end learns to dismiss this misnomer: “We are all programmed to believe that if a guy acts like a total jerk that means he likes you.”
Well-said Liz Tucillo, Greg Brehrendt - while sitting through a whole book defeats the purpose of mindlessly entertaining oneself, the concept of having important lines from it put into another handy book was genius! And the movie was pretty fun too. Between the book(s), the film and Sex and the City, we think this one takes the prize for being the ultimate in chick-lit/flick. |
