The Devil Wears Prada

I hit a real low this morning when I realized I'd finishedThe Devil Wears Prada last night! I really don't have a clue what I feel like reading next. I have four new books I can get started on, or maybe more like eight...In Cold Blood, Expecting Adam, The Priestly Sins, Angela's Ashes, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, Everything is Illuminated, and A Room With A View. The last four have been on my "to read:" list since last year, the first four are relatively new.

First of all, I went into this book without any real prior knowledge. I try not to read reviews or summaries before I read books on the bestseller list. I did, however, know that this book was reportedly a roman à clef about a Vogue intern, and that the hellish boss was reportedly Anna Wintour. Whether or not it's true, the gossipy bitch inside of me read page after page with complete fascination. So, this is a good book - a great book if, like me, you can't help but raise an eyebrow when words like Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo, &tc. are thrown around casually - and want to know if all of the snippets you've read on the blogosphere about Anna Wintour are true or not.

It really was chick lit in the worst possible way, but like The Shopaholic Series, I loved the easy reading (i.e. not written particularly well) and the fast-paced story. I was not particularly impressed, however, by the predictable ending and the choppy way the story was written (Andrea is at Runwayfor a whole year, but somewhere between page 30 and page 130, we jumped from month 4 to month 7, and I didn't notice that three months of activity had passed), nor by the anti-climactic resolution between Andrea and Alex, or the way Lily's story was wrapped up - after it had been poorly "alluded" to (read: beaten into your brain repeatedly). Also, when she introduces herself to Christian as Andrea, and he calls her Andy right off the bat, I couldn't tell if it was a typo or intentional - and it bugged me for a few pages. Even when I found a typo in one of the copies of P&P that I have, I wasn't that bothered. And yes, that means I have multiple copies of Pride and Prejudice...

Now that I've read the book, and found all sorts of nitpicky things that annoyed me, I'm not sure what to think. A lot of people worship this book (at the orthodontist's office alone, I was approached by four residents who were lauding this book and told me that it was sooooo fabulous), but the reviews at Amazon.com are completely true. The book is not written well. The characters are flat.

But did I enjoy it? Yes. And unfortunately, an easy and enjoyable read sometimes makes it harder to jump into a book like A Room With A View or Anthem...