Bridget Jones 3 and a Secret History.

Apparently the rumours are true and Helen Fielding is indeed writing Bridget Jones 3. I feel this is a huge mistake as dear old Bridget and her hapless guide to life epitomised the gloriously new days of singleton back in the 1990s and trying to drag her into the year 2011 and turn her into a yummy mummy (oh the horror!) scream out cash cow rather than literary endeavor.

Still at least Bridget has at least passing luck with men, I am still delightfully single though horribly and overwhelmingly in love with one of my lecturers... he is rather dishy and although ironically not a very good lecturer I do adore him. I am sure he has barely noticed me beyond very nicely answering all my questions, but then again who knows... Not entirely a desert on the man hunt as did have a jolly lovely time with a beautifully blonde boy at a party last week, most yummy and from Denmark I believe. Also been asked away by an old love interest to spend the weekend with him, but not so sure how I will reply to him. The idea of a fun weekend is most appealing but am not personally a great fan of one-night stands.

Busy with uni stuff recently but have just read the almost excellent 'Secret History' by the very badly named Donna Tart and the disappointing 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro which has just been made into a film starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan. The latter was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize several years ago and I had heard terrific things about it, but I found it to be written in such a plodding dull way that although the central idea was most interesting I found it quite hard to stop myself skipping chunks of it. While the characters were all irritating, especially the narrator who seemed far too nice and forgiving of everyone else to be real. I suspect I found it so tedious largely due to having read a review of the film which gave away pretty much the whole plot. Roger Ebert is a fine film reviewer (in fact I think him the very best) but he did spoil this book for me.

On the other hand I got totally engrossed by 'Secret History'. It is about a group of elite students at a prestigious university who are all linked by a dark secret. That description makes it sound a bit slushy but it is very well written and the characters are all amazingly realistic and wonderfully flawed because of it. The students are all studying classics as am I and so I particularly loved all the little classical references and quotations in ancient greek.

Not sure what to begin next... I think perhaps 'The Chrysalids' by John Wyndham. 'Never Let Me Go' was likened to it by one of the reviewers and I can only hope that Wyndham made a better job of it!