great romantic comedy - Rated 
As an adamant hater of all things romantic-comedy style, I bought this book as I was determined to not be such a 'miserable cow' as my sister put it and learn to love rom coms! I was very pleased with this novel, it did make me laugh and I read the whole thing in a couple of days. Not trying too hard to be funny, the two fantastic main characters create the plot - the author uses some great imagery and dialogue, all I can say is bring on the film!
starter for ten and one day - Rated 
Starter for ten is one of the funniest books I have read in a long time.
And one day was just a lovely love story, cleverly written a joy to read. I believe it may one day be a film and I can't wait.
Good stuff - Rated
I haven't read any other David Nicholls, and this one may have passed me by if it hadn't been chosen for my book club book.
I am a contemporary of the principal characters, and as such could relate to every stage of their lives. It was interesting to read the review by the 23 year old, who found it more moving than funny - I'd really like to know the ages of all the reviewers, to see whether it affected their views.
But on with the review!
I liked the device of dropping into the characters' lives once a year. Yes, initially it meant that there was less of a connection between reader and characters, which is possibly what has led some reviewers to find it hard to get into. But as the book develops over the next 20 years, the characters develop beautifully and realistically with it and you cannot fail to become involved with them, if you don't choose to dismiss them as stereotypes early on. One review stated that it was totally unbelievable that a leftie, Labour-voting northerner would befriend, let alone sleep with, a privileged softie southerner. Well, yes, they would. University broadens the mind, not to mention the sex life, and to refuse to befriend someone on the grounds of social class, geography and politics, despite a deep mutual attraction and a shared sense of humour would be narrow-minded in the extreme. To refuse to sleep with them on the same basis - hahaha! Good grief.
Dexter starts off as a totally superficial person, whose principal motivation in choosing a career is that it must be something which sounds good when you shout it out in a club. Very funny, and I'm sure there's an element of that in all of us - we hanker to have a glamorous answer to the question "and what do you do?". However, Dexter is wryly aware of his superficiality, and it is this which saves him from coming across as a complete and utter waste of space - although not in the eyes of some reviewers - maybe they missed this. Which is a shame, as without it, the book would not work. We need to like Dexter and want good things for him. We need to understand what Emma sees in him. And we need to understand that although there are times when Emma feels that her and Dexter are not together because she is not good enough or glamorous enough, it is actually Dexter's awareness of his shallowness and fundamental flaws which keep him and Emma apart.
Emma, meanwhile, has been written off by other reviewers as being typical two-dimensional trashy novel fodder, a ridiculous female fantasy of the frumpy woman who is too intelligent for her own good (not sure where they got that, but everyone's entitled to their opinion) getting the drop-dead gorgeous bloke. Well, as I said above, I think this misses the point. It also misses another point: that Emma is not frumpy (or overly intellectual). She feels that she is lacking in the glamour stakes, but so does every other woman in Britain who doesn't conform to the current physical ideal of the seven foot surgically enhanced blonde with knees wider than her thighs and ribs you could play a glockenspiel on. Whenever Emma is seen through anyone's eyes other than her own, she is gorgeous, witty, desirable, generous and excellent company. While this is not an uncommon characteristic of female literary heroines in this era, it is also a fair reflection of the general zeitgeist, and I don't think it's particularly valid to criticise a book on the basis of writing realistic characters.
Dexter's shallowness and need for adulation has predictable consequences with him initially trundling and then hurtling down the road to rack and ruin - drugs, meaningless sex, black holes in the memory. Again, this has been flagged up as being predictable. In my opinion it is only predictable in that this is what would happen to Dexter (and happened to many celebrities in the 90s - as it continues today), given his background and character flaws - so it is a logical progression of a well-written character. Just because we can see where he's going doesn't mean he wouldn't or shouldn't go there.
I really enjoyed this book. I think that David Nicholls did a really good job of moving the characters on and allowing them to grow. The device offered him the opportunity of exploring how these two people would react at different stages of their lives, and he grasped this admirably. Emma's comments on her friends' approach to parenthood had me howling with that most enjoyable form of laughter - recognition. Dexter's reactions to his growing fame, notoriety and dwindling star were very well documented. All in all, I think it was a great read and would highly recommend it to all.
So why only four stars?
Well, call me an old romantic, but I was GUTTED by the ending. My mouth dropped into a wide O and tears rolled down my cheeks at that short and totally unexpected sentence. I felt cheated. It wasn't what I wanted to read. I felt like I'd invested twenty years of my life in these peoples' lives (see how effectively he wrote?!) and this... it upset me. Not that I want my books to be all sweetness and tweeting birdies, but it hadn't been. There had been bad times and heartbreak and darkness, and I think they deserved more light.
Entertaining but sad - Rated
The book is a love story based around the harsh and often funny story of the lives of Dexter and Emma. The story follows them through the ups and downs of their lives, yet is not dreary and does not seem to drag because it is only a 1-day account of their year. What I loved is that I was dragged into the book ; it made me laugh at the funny points and cry at the sad ones.
However, the book is slightly sad in that it is so true to life. I therefore would not say this book is for escapists, but rather as a very funny and realsitic view of our day-to-day lives!
The next page to Boredom, calling at Dull, Dreary . . . - Rated 
I got to chapter three and gave up. Would a northern, Labour voting, leftie (Emma) really become friends let alone sleep with a priviliged, arrogant southerner (Dexter)? I doubt it. The story is derivative. You get the feeling that you've read this book before or that you've seen the film.
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