Classics Club March Meme: Jane Austen

I would like to lead off this post with some interesting facts about Jane Austen:


1) Jane Austen was born the seventh child out of eight. Wow, that's one big family!

2) Jane Austen was extremely shy and thought of her family as the center of her world.

3) Jane's first love was with the nephew of a friend. Jane and Irishman Tom Lefroy began a romance that was soon ended by Tom's aunt as soon as she caught wind of it because she knew Tom would lose his inheritance if he married a "nobody." Tom Lefroy later became the Chief Justice of Ireland (Jane and Tom's story was made into the movie Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as Jane and James McAvoy as Tom. It's a great film and I highly recommend you watch it if you haven't already.)

4) Jane's second romance also ended tragically. She fell in love with a young clergyman who she met while her family was vacationing at the coast in Devon. He made plans to meet her family later in their travels (indicating there would be a proposal) but he died before he was able to join them.

5) Jane Austen died at the age of 41 from a painful, debilitating disease that was never diagnosed. Today it is believed to have been a tubercular disease of the kidneys.


You can read more about Jane Austen here.

Also, check out this article: Twelve Little-Known (False) Facts About Jane Austen.
Some of these are pretty funny. The writer really had me going at the beginning. :-D

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I have read three of Jane Austen's novels so far: Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. I have her other three books on my Classics Club reading list.


Northanger Abbey is my favorite so far. I really loved Pride and Prejudice as well, but I read it years ago. Almost everything I remember about the story comes from the movie starring Keira Knightley, which I've seen at least a half dozen times. The novel is definitely due for a reread.

I wrote mini reviews for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion on Goodreads, which I'll share here.

My thoughts on Northanger Abbey:

I absolutely loved this book! It's my second Austen book, after Pride and Prejudice, which I had to read for my ninth grade English class. And though I really enjoyed P&P, I still wasn't sure how I would take to Jane Austen's writing style--if it would have long passages and be overly-descriptive (thinking back, I was probably mistaking Austen for Wharton, who I love but you really have to be in a leisurely mood to enjoy one of her books) or if it would be captivating. Luckily it was the latter, and I found myself spending much of my 3-day beach vacation sneaking in moments to read whenever and wherever I could. I was obsessed. I thought Catherine Morland was very sweet and I enjoyed her and Henry's subtle romance.

Catherine was just such a funny character. I loved her imagination and the way that she owned it. That is to say, she wasn't ashamed of how carried away she'd get at times and she never let her delusions control her. They were just innocent thoughts that she flirted with in order to bring some excitement into her life. 

Henry was such a gentleman. He was very down-to-earth and Catherine's complete opposite. I only wish I could have seen them together more. I'm sure there would've been many funny scenarios between them as a couple given how different they were. The great thing was that these differences did not matter to them and that was actually part of the attraction.

And while I don't think that this was the intention of the book (or maybe it was), it made me really want to read a Gothic novel. I'm not sure what Austen really thought of the Gothics, but she got me to put Mysteries of Udolpho on my to-read list immediately after I finished Northanger Abbey. :D

Rating: 5 Stars

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My thoughts on Persuasion:

I didn't like Persuasion nearly as much as P&P and Northanger Abbey. Anne Elliot's character didn't interest me that much. She was too docile of a main character to carry the book forward, IMHO.

*Spoilers*

I was really hoping that Anne would redeem herself by standing up to her selfish family in order to finally get what she wanted. It turned out she didn't have to because her father and her sister Mary now approved of Captain Wentworth due to his new rank and fortune. And that makes me uncertain about Anne's strengths in this relationship. Would she have fought to stay with Captain Wentworth if her family still disapproved? More importantly, would she have stayed with him if Lady Russell had still been against the match?

At the end of the book, Anne tells Captain Wentworth, "I must believe that I was right, much as I have suffered from it, that I was perfectly right in being guided by [my] friend...". What? You mean to say that you were right to break the heart of the person you loved more than anyone because a friend (who doesn't really control you're life) told you that you should just because he didn't have the proper rank in society? Whatever.

Maybe she would have had to break ties with her family, but that wouldn't have been much of a loss. They were awful people. They constantly ignored her and took her for granted, and yet she sacrificed over eight years of happiness and independence for them. Why?

I know that many people love this book and list it as their favorite Austen. Perhaps I'm missing something, and I'm not completely against rereading it sometime down the road to see if I get more out of it the second time. But I just could not stand the characters in this book, especially Anne's family. They were all just horrible, selfish, close-minded people. Of course, Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne was incredibly sweet and romantic (the best part of the novel), but I could not see how she even deserved him. Please don't hate me for saying that. It's just how I felt reading the book. I welcome others' opinions and will be sure to keep them in mind. 

Rating: 2 Stars

Classics Spin

The Classics Club is hosting a classics spin! I found out about it through Délaissé's blog.

List your choice of any twenty books you have left to read from your Classics Club list – in a separate post.

This is your Spin List. You have to read one of these twenty books in February & March. (Details follow.) So, try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, rereads, ancients — whatever you choose.)

Next Monday, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List, by April 1. We’ll have a check in or something in April, to see who made it the whole way and finished the spin book.

Okay, so since I'm late beginning this challenge (it began on February 18), I'm changing the date from April 1 to April 18. That way, I still have 6 weeks to read it. Here's the list I made up (and I swear on the life of my pets that I did not cheat by looking at the spin number first!; What fun would that have been?)

5 Books I'm Dreading:

1. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

2. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

3. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

4. Metamorphoses by Ovid

5. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

5 Books I Can't Wait to Read

6. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

7. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

8. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

9. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

10. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

5 Book I'm Neutral About

11. Emma by Jane Austen

12. Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

13. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

14. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

15. Tess of D' Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

5 Free Choice Books

16. The Reivers by William Faulkner

17. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

18. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

19. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L' Engle

20. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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And the spin number is . . . . . . . . . . . 14!!

My book will be Out of Africa, one of my neutral books.

I'm so excited about this challenge! I really haven't been doing well with my Classics Club list, but I really want to turn that around this year. And to prove how serious I am, I'm not taking part in any other reading challenges in the blogosphere this year (the only other challenges I'm taking part in are the two seasonal challenges hosted by my favorite Goodreads group, which I have almost always participated in since I joined the group three years ago and the Rory Gilmore Challenge, which is more or less a work-at-my-own-pace challenge with no deadline).

Top Ten Series I Need to Start Reading

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. You can find upcoming topics at their Top Ten Tuesday page.

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympian by Rick Riordan: I actually started this series a couple of years ago, but only got as far as Book 2, which I read back in October 2011. I really need to start reading this series again. I mean, it's about Greek mythology, which I have been in love with since the 6th grade. This series should have been a priority read for me.

2. Jessica Darling by Megan McCafferty: I've heard so many great things about this series and intended to pick up Sloppy Firsts years ago. I really want to see what all the fuss is about with this Marcus Flutie character :)












3. Castor Chronicles by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl: I just saw the movie and really enjoyed it. I loved that the two main characters were portrayed as such avid readers. I own the first book, so this should definitely be a series I'll start sooner rather than later.

4. Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: I've heard nothing but good things about this series, and I love modern day fairy tale retellings, so this series sounds like it'd be a definite winner for me.

5. Delirium by Lauren Oliver: I can't even tell you how long I've owned this book. I want to say it's been going on two years now, at least.

6. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: This series sounds so awesome and funny and quirky. Plus, I remember watching a clip from the movie in  a math class in college (it was the scene where the computer gives the number 42 as the ultimate answer to the universe--spoiler?) and it was absolutely hilarious! I've been dying to watch the rest of the movie, but I don't want to until I read the book first. I bought the volume with all five books at a yard sale for about $2, and I can't wait to dig into this beast.

7. Firelight by Sophie Jordan: I was so excited for this series and I bought the first book the moment it came out . . . and then I never read it :/

8. Gone by Michael Grant: This series sounded so incredible when I first heard about it. It sounded a lot like The Girl Who Owned a City, an older post-apocalyptic YA novel that was a favorite of mine in middle school. I'd been looking for similar story lines ever since, and when I happened upon Gone, I knew it was a must read. I still can't believe I haven't started it yet.

9. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare: This is another series that I've heard countless praise for. I told myself that I'd finally start it as soon as all of the books in the series have come out (that way, I don't have to be tortured by those long waits and those cliff hangers!).

10. Prague. Art. Chimaeras. I could go on and on about how incredibly awesome this series sounds just from reading the three paragraph summary. I can't believe I didn't jump into this novel as soon as I was able. I must be crazy. However, I did buy a copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone with my birthday money, and I have every intention of buying all of the other books for this series.I just know this is one I'll love to death before I've even read the first page.

Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up

End of Event Meme:

1) What hour was most daunting for you?
-Honestly, the first couple of hours were. I'm just not a morning person, and I couldn't wake myself up enough to really get into the book I was reading (though it's a favorite).
2) Could you list a few high interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
-Children's/Middle-Grade books are always great for read-a-thons. Roald Dahl was a fun, fast read and I really loved reading the Sweet Valley book. If you're a fan of any of the SV series, I would definitely recommend rereading a favorite or even picking up one you haven't read/can't remember reading. I still have a few Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley University books from years ago that I may pick back up again for the next read-a-thon.
3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-Thon next year?
-I liked when we took a "count" of people still participating in the later hours of the read-a-thon (maybe around Hour 18 or so) by using Mr. Linky. It made it easier to visit with bloggers who were still active.
Also, for the mini-challenges that required pictures (one's taken personally), I would have liked a second option since I am not able to upload pictures to my computer from my phone and could not participate in those challenges, though I would have really liked too. I'm not sure how much of a problem this was for other people, though.
4) What do you think worked really well in this year's Read-a-Thon?
-I think the Cheerleaders were great and were able to get around to all participants at least once. It's always nice to receive a comment and some encouragement :)
5) How many books did you read?
-I read 2 full books and partially read 3 others.
6) What were the names of the books you read?
The Christmas Ghost and The Witches were the two books I read in full. I also read the last 70 pages of The Great Gatsby, I read 79 pages of Witness in Death, and about 150 pages of Fables and Reflections (so approximately 693 pages all together).
7) Which book did you enjoy the most?
-The Christmas Ghost
8) Which book did you enjoy the least?
-I really can't say. I enjoyed all the books I read a lot. Fables and Reflections was a bit stranger than I was used to (it's a graphic novel about dreams, but there's so much more to it) and I was too tired to really get into The Great Gatsby. However, I still loved reading both, so I can't honestly answer this question.
9) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice . . . ?
-I wasn't a Cheerleader
10) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-Thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
-I will definitely be participating again and I will, of course, be a Reader but I think I'd also like to be a Cheerleader for a couple hours next time too.

Read-a-Thon Hours 19-24

Hours 19-22:

I planned to only take a half hour break but that stretched into an hour and a half before I finally picked up my next book. I read 79 pages of Witness in Death in the past hour, but I am going to set it aside now so that I can start the graphic novel Fables and Reflections, which I really wanted to get to for the read-a-thon. Since WiD is a reread, I don't mind saving the rest for another day. I'm going to try really hard to finish Fables before the read-a-thon ends. Wish me luck!

Hours 23-24:

Well, I made it over halfway through Fables. The pages aren't numbered, but I'm going to estimate that I read about 150 pages of the novel overall. Not bad.

I didn't actually make an official goal, but I was hoping I would read at least four full books. As it is, I read two full books and partially read three others, so in page numbers I think I fell a book short, but I'm happy enough with what I accomplished.

Read-a-Thon Hours 13-18

Hour 13:

Mid-Event Survey:

1) How are you doing? Sleepy?
-Nope, but that's just because I fell asleep just 2 hours into the read-a-thon (sad, I know). But now I am raring to go and will hopefully stay alert and reading for quite a few more hours yet.
2) What have you finished reading?
-I finished The Great Gatsby and The Christmas Ghost
3) What is your favorite read so far?
The Christmas Ghost- it was just such a fun, quick read and it really made me feel accomplished since I was able to finish it in under two hours :)
4) What about your favorite snacks?
-I've enjoyed my Lipton tea the most so far. I didn't plan out my snacks for this read-a-thon so I haven't eaten anything special (just a Lean Cuisine meal and a couple of slices of mushroom pizza)
5) Have you found any new blogs through the read-a-thon?
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to look at the other blogs, though I really hoped to do that a lot this time around. I slept through the morning and felt behind on my challenge, so I have been focusing on my reading. I only just started looking at other blogs this past hour. Hopefully, I can spare some time later this evening to check out more blogs and cheer some more people on.

Hour 14: Started reading The Witches by Roald Dahl and am 60 pages in so far.

Stella Matutina's Picturrific Mini-Challenge

I found this image at the Open Market blog. In the book I'm reading, The Witches, the main character is a little boy who is beginning to train two white mice that his grandmother gave him. He hasn't trained them to ride mini-scooters (yet), but he has trained them to crawl up his arm and to walk a tight-rope.

Hour 15:

Fall Challenge

For the past three years, my family and I have taken a scenic train ride through the Carolina Mountains (Great Smoky Mountain Railroad). We look at the multi-colored leaves and then hang out by the Tuckasegee River for a while and drink hot chocolate. It's really nice. I love the mountains in the Fall.










Hours 16-18:

I finished The Witches (208 pages), my third book of the challenge. Now I really want to watch the movie with Angelica Huston. It's one of my favorite movies to watch around this time of the year.

I'll be starting Witness in Death next, but first I'm going to take a little break and grab a snack. I'm starving!

Read-a-Thon Hours 7-12

Hours 7-11:

After my disastrous beginning, I am now finally starting my second book, The Christmas Ghost. I probably won't start participating in mini-challenges or do much online for another few hours so that I can try and catch up. I want to at least finish this book first and be into another before I distract myself. Off I go!

Update: I finished The Christmas Ghost (186 pages) and it was a wonderful, quick read! A perfect holiday book! I'm watching Halloweentown High with my mother right now, so I think I'll finish watching it while participating in mini-challenges and visiting other blogs for the next hour (Hour 12). I'll start my next book in Hour 13--not sure what it'll be just yet.

Hour 12:

Joystory's Literacy Mini-Challenge

This picture reminded me of myself when I was first learning tor read. Or, technically, it reminded me of stories my mom told me about myself, since I don't really remember it that clearly. She would tell me how everyday when I came home from kindergarten, I would head straight to my room and get a pile of books (The Berenstain Bears and Little Critters were my favorites) and sit there for hours teaching myself to read from them. She said I looked like I wasn't really having fun but was just absolutely determined to learn. I can't say for sure if I actually enjoyed myself during those moments or not, but I know that I loved reading as early as age 7 and that my love of reading has continued to this day. :)

Marking Books Mini-Challenge

Option 2: I'm always taking the free bookmarks that my libraries offer at the desk. I used to have about two dozen, but since I came home after graduating from college, I seem to have lost most of them. I only have about 6 library bookmarks now and a couple of fancier bookmarks with tassels that I bought. I have no idea what happened to all the others. I love to have a large variety because I like to try and match my bookmark to the cover of my book if I can (either by color or theme--example, if I'm reading a sci-fi novel I choose a bookmark with stars on it or something).

When I can't find a bookmark, I usually use a business card that I see lying around or my library receipt, but I tend to swap those out for real bookmarks as soon as I can.