Bridget Jones' Diary

First published in 1996, this modern day take on Jane Austen has gone on to spawn films, sub-genres, spin-offs and lifestyle choices. Over ten years old, though, is Bridget Jones' Diary still amusing? Well, the amazing thing is, it still holds up as a funny take on a single girl searching for love, on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement and inner-poise.

Bridget Jones wants to have it all - and once she's given up smoking and got down to 8st 7 she will. Based on Helen Fielding's diary in the Independent newspaper, this is a novel about a year in the life of the titular Jones follows her love triangle with sleazy Daniel Cleaver, her boss, and the Mr Darcy-esque Mark Darcy.

The diary format, with its broad and subtle snapshots of Bridget's life,  reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books to feng shui, all through the eyes of a charming and endearing yet eternally hopeless heroine. One for the ages.