Book Review: The Devil Wears Prada

I once was an avid reader. Well, that was way back in the days of the Baby-Sitters Club, The Gymnasts, Pen Pals, Judy Blume and other pre-teen/teenage crap. Terrible isn't it? I can't recall the last book I read. I think it was either 'My Legendary Girlfriend' (which Smee found in an airport lounge), 'Fight Club' or 'Japanese Women Don't Get Fat or Old'. Up until leaving for London, the most regular reading I had done back home was the monthly Instyle magazine. That's if you can call looking at clothes 'reading'. My subscription, I do sorely miss.

Inbetween work, chores, surfing the net (blogging!) and TV, I find I don't have much time for books. Given that the general consensus is that I'm getting dumber and my vocabulary is waning - "When did Pooey get so dumb?!?"- I've decided to utilise my work travel time as 'reading time'.

Reading time is rather limited given that I only spend about 20 minutes on public transport per trip and approximately 10 minutes of that trip is devoted to the pages of free newspapers in the style of Mx. My routine is as such:

• AM: Metro. I don't read City AM because it's full of commerce talk.
• PM: The London Paper (preferred) or London Lite, depending on who won the 'shove a newspaper into my face' competition.

Until I find another valid reason, this will suffice as to why there will be long intervals between book reviews. Hehe

I couldn't resist a 3 for 2 special at Books Etc which included the best selling novel 'The Devil Wears Prada'.

What is the big deal about this book? There is nothing wrong with chick-lit but I have never been a huge fan. I'll read it if it's recommended - it's innocuous enough but I certainly don't go out of my way. Funnily, what "inspired" me to read this book was the movie and I wanted to see how the book compared. The movie was enjoyable - Anne Hathaway strutting in her designer wear and perfect make up - a bit of lightweight girly entertainment. Nothing deep and meaningful.

My my, how the book differs! It's common knowledge that Hollywood rarely stays true to the books that movies and so I'll highlight a few differences in the case of the TDWP:

• Andy's boyfriend is called Alex.

- In the movie, he's called Nate. Huh!?! Why?

• In the book, the boyfriend is a teacher

- He's a chef in the movie

• Andy lives with her best friend who features heavily in the book.

- Movie: lives with boyfriend. Best friend is almost non existent. I can't even remember the best friend in the movie

• Miranda Priestly (the Devil herself) has a nice husband.

- She has marriage problems, which I guess is a Hollywood attempt at humanising her

• Andy only ever flirts with Christian the writer.

- She does the slutty thing and sleep with him after a drunken episode

• Andy goes to Paris because her colleague has Mononucleosis.

- She goes to Paris at Miranda's preference

• Andy quits because her best friend is comatose after a car accident

- She quits because she doesn't want to be one of 'those people'.

• Andy finds a new job on her own

- Movie: She lands a job at Miranda's recommendation.

I should remain faithful to the purpose of this blog entry and review the book, rather than trundle on about the movie/novel differences. I do feel a bit stupid about wanting to read books to assist mental development but instead, I just read some fluff. The protagonist and her best friend verges on annoying and Miranda Priestly's character is exaggerated. Only the boyfriend was remotely likable. I kept on reading because the words weren't hard (hahahahaha) and I wanted to know how it all concluded.

This sounds bizarre but I actually preferred the MOVIE over the book! If the movie remained faithful to the book, it would have flopped. The plot would have been too drawn out. Movies of such content need visuals to keep one interested and yes, the clothes, make up and pretty women kept me interested indeed. Do I sound vacuous or what??? Hehehe.

Would I recommend others to read this book? No. Well, yes if you want some holiday-sitting-by-the-pool-reading that requires little concentration. I don't quite understand how other people claim to 'love' this book. It's not lovable. Maybe I haven't read enough chick lit, but I'll give it credit as being one of better ones of it's genre? I once read a Maggie Alderson book (HATED it!) and I wondered how it managed to be published.

Should I rate this book? It's hard to establish a rating scale without reading more books, so I'll leave it as a Yes/No rating for the time being. So...

NO.

(man, I surely wrote a lot eh?)