Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

Okie doke... next one on the list is... Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison. It's the tenth and final book in the diary series of character Georgia Nicolson.

It basically shows you how much I love you all, because I canNOT believe that I 1)got this book from the library, 2)read this book, 3) confessed to you that I read this book, and 4) am trying to analyze this for you. WOW.

I'll start by saying that this was better than I expected- when I saw the list, I couldn't believe that I was going to have to read a book with the word basoomas in the title, and I thought the worst. It wasn't raunchy or anything like that, so already, I was happy. Essentially, the book is the diary of a 15-year-old British girl's life. Think being one of the plastics in Mean Girls, only British.

Yeah.

Here's the problem: I literally got dumber reading this. I felt important information I gained during college slipping away, replaced by words like "basoomas" and "nunga-nungas" (a synonym to "basoomas", in case you were wondering). It was... indescribable. And really difficult to read. First of all, being the tenth in the series, there were a ton of inside jokes I had missed. Secondly, she's 15. At fifteen, my friends and I made up words too (coughcoughMelissaMealeyJulieGuerreroKatieCowanJenMosscoughcough), so that was way confusing. Then, she's British, and while I know lots of British slang (or so I thought), I don't seem to know enough. So... it took some decoding. If I had started from the first book, I might have gotten more. To her credit, Rennison puts a glossary in the back of the book, which I discovered AFTER, sadly. It would have made my life easier, but alas... So if you're reading the book, look for that. So here's an example of something she said, so you understand.

"9:17 am.
If he gets the numpty about a bit of twisting, what number on the Having a Hump Scale would he get to for accidental snogging?"

or,

"Mabs said, 'It's his hot Pizza-a-gogo blood. They get vair jealous.'
Rosie said, 'You might have to eschew Dave the Laugh with a firm hand for a bit.'
Ok, well, I can knock it on the head laaarfwise with the Hornmeister.
It's a shame.
But ho hum, pig's bum."

See how much I love you all? I kept reading this stuff. And, much to my chagrin, I kind of enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong, it was ridiculous. Absolutely unadulterated ridiculousness. But... it was quite funny. Fifteen-year-old me would have laffed her arse off. Twenty-five-year-old me laughed quite a bit as well. As a character, Georgia is funny and oblivious and opinionated and confused, and read very true as a 15-year-old. Her friends are similar, with their own awkward tendencies. They're all discovering who they are in ways that they'll be embarrassed to tell people about when they're older, like one girl and her boyfriend going to a concert in matching unitards and starting a conga line. The weird drama teacher's interpretation of Romeo and Juliet gets funnier and funnier with each passing practice, and I genuinely wanted to see what the play would look like.

So, there you have it. Unbelievably, I really liked the book... but it wasn't thought provoking or anything. So, if you want to remember being 15, if you want to give your mind a break and just be entertained, or if you know someone that would like this, I recommend starting at the beginning of the series.

Has anyone read this? Could you ever bring yourself to try it? Lemme know your thoughts!