Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

May 08, 2008

Allison rated it:

Ouch, ouch, my soul.

Please don't misunderstand. I like vanilla cupcakes top heavy with fluffy pink frosting as much as the next guy. That's why the show is a longstanding guilty pleasure of mine. The difference between the show and the book is that while acquisitive, status-obsessed party monsters with less depth than a paper cut comprise the bulk of the characters on the show as in the book, the show manages to flesh them out into comically fallible, three-dimensional human beings w More...

0 comments like (25 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Katie rated it:

I think I read this right after the show first started on HBO. The book is nowhere near as entertaining as the show...it doesn't have the 4-girlfriends-on-the-town approach that the show takes; instead, it just focuses on some caricature of a stupid New York-type that I hate: the ones who live here like it's LA with bad weather.

If I had read this before I watched any of the episodes, I never would have turned on the show.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2007

Elizabeth rated it:

There are very few books I quit reading, even if I don't like them, because I am compelled with book guilt most of the time.

I did not make it through this. All I can say is the writers for the HBO series REALLY had some vision, because the show was about 4000 times better than the book : )

2 comments like (14 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Raquel added it

This was a great TV show in its heyday. I have seen every episode numerous times and feel like lately when I rewatch an episode it hasn't quite stood the test of time, but that doesn't deny the fact that this was a great, ground-breaking show.

I was really excited to read this book, due to my love of the show. But it was so completely different from the show, the characters were so flat, the writing so poor that I rue the fact that I paid even the Target low price of like 3 bucks for More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jill rated it:

This was ridiculous. It was incredibly self-indulgent and trite. It's incredible that someone read this collection of articles and said, "Hey! Let's turn this into a wildly funny, intelligent, and timely series that will win Emmys and Jill's Heart!" Avoid the book, rent the series.

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2007

Christy rated it:

This book is nothing like the show (which I adore!). I couldn't make it past 50 pages of this book: I was so bored. Candace Bushnell is so impressed with herself and that's pretty much what her books are about. There was no plot or substance to hold my interest.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Dawn rated it:

This book was highly disappointing. I watch and love the show (and I'm looking forward to the movie) so I thought the book would be a sure bet. Turns out, the writers for the show are so much more smart, clever, and interesting that Bushnell could ever be. The Sex and the City book was just full of ridiculous characters in their thirties trying to be young again by going out every night to the "hottest" bar, doing ridiculous amounts of drugs like that's the only way to be cool, and it More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

After reading this book I've come to the following conclusion: When people say that they only have time for movies, not books, they need to read a different type of book.

Sex in the City (the book) took me about 2.5 hours to read, the same time as a longish movie and I learned about as much as I do from a chick flick. It's rather obvious when you think about it. A cheesy chick movie like How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days is neither deep nor revelatory, complicated or precise. Bushnell's wo More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 14, 2007

Jackie rated it:

I don't understand the point of this book. On one hand, I liked the ending more than I liked the series finale of the show; on the other, all of the characters in the book were caricatures of the worst qualities in people, unsympathetic and kinda psychotic. The first half of the book (a series of vignettes) was a bit more fun than the second (Carrie and her ensuing mental break-down with Big). Carrie, of the show and of the book, sucks.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2011

Taneika (Flipping Through The Pages...) rated it:

More of my reviews can be found at Flipping Through the Pages!

I’m not a huge fan of bitch-lit, chick-lit, whatever you’d like to call it, however, I have almost always felt okay after reading. The exception to that is this book, I was simply disappointed. As you will discover, although I appreciate movies and appreciate the fact that creating a movie or TV show is a completely different art to a book, I still prefer reading the book over the TV show/movie. But this is the first excepti More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2007

Karschtl rated it:

Ich hatte anfangs gedacht, dass das Buch quasi genauso wie die TV-Folgen sind. Dem ist aber nicht so, was ich zuerst etwas schade fand.
Auch die Charaktere entsprechen nicht den vier Hauptdarstellerinnen, im Grunde genommen gibt es hier gar keine 4 Hauptdarsteller. Es gibt zwar eine Journalistin Carrie, eine Samantha Jones und auch Miranda. Es gibt sogar den schwulen Stanford. Aber es gibt auch eine Menge anderer Leute, dafür nicht die Mädels-Clique in dem Sinne wie in der Serie beschriebe More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Nirac rated it:

I was really looking forward to read this book, since I'm a big fan of Sex and the City. At first I thought the book was a bit confusing. I had assumed that the characters; Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte as a group of friends would be in focus, like in the TV-series. In the beginning I was therefore a bit disappointed. As I continued to read, my view changed. I really started to enjoy reading this book.
What I really liked about the book was that even though the characters an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Lisse rated it:

I've seen quite a few of the Sex and the City episodes and enjoyed them a lot, so I thought it would be cool to see where it all started from. I have to be honest - I think the television show is so much better - more fleshed out characters, better dialogue, more likeable characters and just a lot more depth period.
It's hard for me to get too interested in a book that is so very on the surface, where you never really get to know much about the characters or even the setting they are inh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2008

Nicole rated it:

This is certainly different from the series - and it's not just the mounds of cocaine and pounds of marijuana consumed by the main characters.

The selling point of the series has always been the friendships between the four characters. In this book, on the other hand, it's every girl for herself. The women are never supportive, and are usually backstabbing. Carrie is even more of a mess than she ever was in the TV show. Everyone seems utterly miserable.

Also? Allegedly this More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Jessie (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it:

Bleak, and entirely off-putting. There are no real characters, just darkly humorous facsimiles of them. No one is likable; no one even really has a tangible storyline. Depressing and unfulfulling.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 08, 2009

Micky rated it:

I read this when the movie came out. It was not what I expected. It lacked the close friendship that was featured on the show.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2008

Jenn rated it:

I decided to try some fluff. I really didn't like this book. I've come to like the TV series because although it can be a bit raunchy or risque, it has the redeeming qualities of humor, introspection, and the value of friendship. This book was all over the place. I guess I thought it would be a series of columns, but it didn't seem that way to me. It also didn't seem to have any introspection at all. I realize it isn't a novel so I didn't expect it to be a book with linear form. The problem is t More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2008

Erika rated it:

One of the rare cases in which I prefer the show to the book. The only character that was better in the book was Stanford. Who cares what one woman thinks about the mating rituals specific to New York City?

****Update****

It's been a few months after I've read this book and I've had time to stew about it and really think of how angry it made me. So, I have reduced my rating from two stars to one. Take that Bushnell and your crappy storyline that wasn't evident until More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Sophia Sun rated it:

Not to discredit my parents, but I was the teen girl who was raised on SATC. My parents didn't want to suffer through uncomfortable discussions, but they did inform me if I did have sex I would get pregnant, the first time, for sure.

Liars.

Anyway, I discovered SATC way back when Carrie's wardrobe was just tube tops and jeans and not quite manolo and Viv Westwood. The show wasn't finessed yet, and hadn't quite found it's voice or audience. To me, it had the word "sex More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Scherry rated it:

"Readers! If you pick this book to read...then treat it as a book to read. It is not a serial. Nor is this Chic Lit material. What it is is a very mature and advanced version of relationships, people, women, sexuality...what I enjoyed about this book was the way it was disconnected from emotions...but revealed emotions ultimately. Candace Bushnell has put in a lot of thought in developing a variety of characters from Mr Big to Mr Marvelous...her style is unique, imaginative yet with all the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Virginia rated it:

Well...

There was...

um...

-No/minimum sex involved
-None of the (more) lovable characters- come on, where was Smith and Harry?!
-Lack of chapter format; if I'm going to force myself to read something that monotonous, at least make me feel a little better with a few chapter '1's' and '2's', Candace!!

HOWEVER, it wasn't ALL bad:

-If there wasn't a Smith, at least we had Mr Big...
-There were a FEW laughs along the way(I won't More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2011

Olesya rated it:

OK, this book doesn't probably deserve even one star. Not from me, anyway. I know, I know - the book that inspired one of my favorite shows of all time is supposed to be completely different, a collection of column entries, a haphazard look at approximately a thousand characters' lives in the Big Apple, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah blah. As such, it might work for some. As such, it might be found funny by the most unsentimental and cynical audience. As for me, it just left me depressed. It left More...

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2011

B Dean rated it:

This book is proof, more than any other text I've read, that a reader's perception of literature is firmly connected to what is going on in the reader's life at the time the literature is read.

I attempted an abortive first read of this shortly after it was published in 1996, when I was fresh out of comp lit undergrad and working at a book store in Manhattan that was hosting an author reading to promote the title. I threw the book against my wall at around page 16 and never finished i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2010

Meg rated it:

Does my opinion count if I only read 20 pages?

YES.

I ONLY READ 20 PAGES OF THIS BOOK.

Seriously? This was a book? And some based the Sex and The City that I love and adore on it?! Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?! Obviously my expectations were based on the show, but I am easy to please. Especially when it comes to girlie stuff...I am living vicariously through characters while I read, I'm the first to admit! But the style of writing was like nothing I've ev More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2010

(´*•.¸ღBexღ¸.•*´) rated it:

I seem to be one of the rare ones here, but I am a fan of the show who actually enjoyed this book. I decided to read it not because I thought there would be something new and exciting to behold, or because I was expecting a riveting, entrancing novel. Rather, because I was curious about the origins of the characters and plotlines in one of my favorite television series. Most of the stories from the first season of the tv show are lifted from this book. However, some of the characters are differe More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2010

Lindsay rated it:

The author of this book has a new show coming out based on her book Lipstick Jungle and I kept seeing ads for it and wanted to read it, but my sister had this book on her shelft so I read it instead. We've all seen the show, and if you haven't then you must live in a cave. The show is addicting, and so was reading this book. It's a quick read and I just wanted to read it non-stop, but being sick only aloud for a few chapters a night. There are things from this book that you recongize from the sh More...

0 comments like

Jul 23, 2009

Mariah rated it:

I picked this up at a rummage sale for some light pool-side reading while on vacation. Having watched and enjoyed the TV series, I was curious to see what the book was like. Bushnell's writing style took a little getting used to, but while I can't say it was a _great_ book, it was far better written and I enjoyed it more than I'd expected. Fans of the series should be forewarned that, other than the primary story topics(modelizers, toxic bachelors, etc.), the book is very, very different from th More...

0 comments like

Apr 12, 2009

Elketw rated it:

Category: Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author: Candace Bushnell

Welcome to the age of un-innocence...
Enter a world where the sometimes shocking and often hilarious mating habits of the privileged are exposed by a true insider. In essays drawn from her witty and sometimes brutally candid column in the New York Observer, Candace Bushnell introduces us to the young and beautiful who travel in packs from parties to bars to clubs.
Meet "Carrie," the More...

0 comments like

Sep 26, 2008

Sheri rated it:

While I usually subscribe to the belief that the movie (HBO series in this case) will never live up to the book, here that is absolutely not the case. The close-knit female friendships that power the television series aren’t nearly as present in Candace Bushnell’s book. The novel’s Carrie is a pathetic character that is hard to get behind, or understand for that matter, and the world in which she lives is un-relatable unless you’re a 30-something Manhattan socialite.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2008

Katie rated it:

Whoever gave Candace Bushnell a book deal needs to be forced to take Freshman Writing all over again. Candace Bushnell should be in a remedial course. The concepts of plot continuity, character consistency and growth, and writing generally well are lost here. I got stupider when I read this book. Seriously. The TV show is nothing at all like the book; in fact, it is infinitely smarter, and the characters are infinitely more sympathetic. And that's saying quite a lot.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)