Confessions of a Shopaholic

I was waiting in Walgreen's yesterday for a prescription for my son, so I picked this up (there were very few paperbacks in the store) and read a good portion of it. It started giving me financial panic attacks because of the heroine's ability to run up her credit card and the constant dunning letters from banks and card companies. The heroine was so unreal. She was Cosmo or Glamour or Vogue personified - she seemed to only be able to define herself and those around her by brands and prices of stuff they wore or possessed. It was truly awful. Argh. Has anyone else even tried to read this?

Thankfully no. The title alone put me off long ago. Now it's an equally vapid movie.

Apparently thie heroine is the kind of woman "chicks" want to be, so they love living in her shopping-mad world. The other books in the series--I skimmed them because I couldn't believe they weren't satire--are equally horrible. She gets married and starts lying to her new husband about how much money she's spending.

It should be The Shopaholic Gets Therapy.

Hey, I am a chick. I have been known to enjoy a trip to the mall with a friend, and buying shoes, and all that sort of stuff. But the character is utterly soulless. She goes to a museum and can't get into liking anything that does not have a price tag. Then she runs to the museum gift shop like it is a lifeline.

She should be forced to go on a long backpacking trip to a really remote place. Maybe she'd die of spending withdrawal.

I seem to lack the shoe gene, so my husband is always taken by surprise when I say, "Oh, I like those shoes."

I shouldn't quibble too much, I get the same way in electronics and computer stores, but I don't need price tags to make me happy.

I picked this up a few years ago, expecting to hate it, and I actually thought it was lots of fun. It had a very satisfying conclusion, which was a second surprise. I haven't read any of the sequels though, as I don't have much time for chick lit. But I'll take this over Phillipa Gregory, or most of the other mass-market authors directed at women.

Speaking of which, Stephen Colbert and Steve Martin read aloud from a Danielle Steele book on yesterday's Colbert Report, and I was shocked at how really bad it was. Simply amazing in its awfulness.

Yeah, I tried to read a Danielle Steele once because it was the only book in the room, and I didn't finish it either.

I cancelled my cable so the kid would get his homework done, and the only thing I really do miss is Colbert and Jon Stewart.

Ah, but you can watch them on the Internet. Comedy Central in the US, the Comedy Network in Canada. They'd be the only thing I'd miss too if I canceled my cable (well, PBS has some good stuff, but I don't usually remember to watch). My husband wants to buy a new big screen TV, and I tell him I'm happy watching Jon Stewart in a 3"x3" square on my PC monitor.

I cannot believe they are making a movie. I stopped reading the book because it was so bad and self centered.

I'm kind of interested in giving Shopaholic a go at some point, some chick lit is actually quite good. But admittedly when they are bad they are really really bad.

I read a few pages of a Danielle Steele book once; it was embarrassingly dreadful. I can't understand why she is so popular but she has written a large number of books so someone must love her.

I slugged through 3 books of this awful series just to see how far the author could take a brainless heroine and finally nearly burst a blood vessel at the mere mention of the release of Shopaholic and Baby. I mean, the first book was okay if you think Rebecca Bloomwood learned her lesson and there's a point to the showcasing of her many many problems. But the series goes on with Rebecca committing the same idiot mistakes over and over again and always being bailed out by other people or by pure luck rather than growing or changing through self-awareness. I'm amazed at people who come away actually enjoying the series. Admittedly there are some comic moments here and there but the overwhelming stupidity drowns out anything that's remotely interesting.

"I can't understand why she is so popular"

I tend to think the extremely popular books (Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steele, etc) are all just real lowest-common-denominator stuff. They don't make you think, they're the same stories over and over again so you know what's going to happen and how it's going to end, and the writing is practically grade-school level, so no effort there.

My Mom loves Danielle Steele! But she's excused because she's 82 now and reading like mad. She gave me her credit card info so I could buy her books online and have them delivered, so she's now getting lots of good stuff, too.
Someone gave her Shopaholic and she didn't finish it, said it was too stupid.

ETA: Posted twice, that's why the delete is next!

I tried. I quit.
I'm safer because I know better now.

Apropos of nothing, the Unsuggester thinks Shopaholic Ties the Knot is the book I'm the least likely to enjoy. I'm in no hurry to find out if that's accurate

Anyway, can anyone explain to me why it's "Shopaholic"? One'd expect "Shopoholic" to go with "alcoholic" and the general tendency to use -o- as the connecting vowel in classicizing coinages.

My mother does the Shopaholic series via CD in the car and because we carpool several days a week I have (regrettably) been subjected to this crap. I cannot imagine and more inane, pointless existence than the one the so-called "heroin" lives.

As far as best-sellers go; they're usually very cookie cutter-ish (I find).
Every Nicholas Sparks book is the same, as is Danielle Steele's work, etc. I feel that people just don't want to think anymore (at least those who enjoy these books). They can "predict" the ending (even though it's always the same) and feel as though they are clever or something.
Yes, occasionally I like books with a mildly predictable ending, but if that's the case, I'll go for juvenile literature; it's usually more entertaining, better written, more imaginative and doesn't take nearly the same amount of time to trudge through.

The second I see "Best-Sellers List" or "Oprah Book Club" (with FEW exceptions) I know I won't like it.

From "25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore:"

5. If someone comes in and asks for a recommendation and you ask for the name of a book that they liked and they can't think of one, the person is not really a reader. Recommend Nicholas Sparks.

Here's the whole list:
http://open.salon.com/blog/jlsathre/2012/01/11/25_things_i_learned_from_opening_...

#19 - That's great! And very authentic (you couldn't make that up!)

To be fair about the Nicholas Sparks/Danielle Steele, etc. readers-I had a neighbor who devoured Louis L'Amour westerns. He said he'd read one and it was just like watching a western. So I guess I could see the attraction. It's just that I want more from my books.

#19
That may well be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. My favorite was:
"20. If you don't have an AARP card, you're apparently too young to read westerns."

And, as a librarian, I can tell you this is VERY true:
"21. A surprising number of people will think you've read every book in the store and will keep pulling out volumes and asking you what this one is about. These are the people who leave without buying a book, so it's time to have some fun. Make up plots."

I've had children ask me if I WROTE all the books. Sadly, they were in the third grade.

Thanks so much for that list. It is a scream.

If anyone feels the urge to read Inferno by Dan Brown fight it all the way. I haven't got all that far into it but it is dreadful

I just read an interview with him in the back of one of my mother's magazines - he seems like a real crackpot.

But a very rich crackpot.