In my Jane Austen reading project, I’m currently about halfway through Northanger Abbey. As with Mansfield Park, I don’t think this is many people’s favorite Jane Austen book. But I am plodding along, reading between 5-10 pages a day. It’s a short book (230 pages) so I should be done by the end of July. If you read it and liked it, let me know! After this, I only have Persuasion and a few short works to go.
After spending much of the past few weeks on the road, I’m now here and staying put for a while. So I have a few goals for the next few weeks. One is to get ahead of everything that can be done before my August travel. That means recording podcasts into September. The other is to do a “reset” of some spots in the house that have gotten a bit unwieldy. This tends to happen when the normal routines get disrupted. I made a list and I plan to tackle just one spot at a time.
Helping with that — we scheduled a donation pick up next week. So all the toys/books/clothes need to be pulled together by then. I think this is a good forcing mechanism!
On my NYC trip this week I reread Juliet’s School of Possibilities, and I enjoyed it. That was good, because I’m always a bit nervous re-reading my old books. I think I should give my prior self a wee bit more credit. I particularly liked the descriptions of fall at the Jersey shore, so maybe I need to put visiting the beach in autumn on my adventures list.
I keep going back and forth about what my next book should be…
We are sending one kid off to camp for three weeks this weekend — a new experience for him! I think he’s going to enjoy it. He’ll be in an air-conditioned dorm room. I bought the size Twin XL sheets that were required. Then the other four kids are in day camps at three different places! So there will be some extra driving required. But fortunately I’m around.
I’m wondering, Ms. Laura Vanderkam: What would be some of the other books in your Jane Austen reading project?
@Yukun – I’m reading all of them! So I started with her “juvenalia” (unpublished youthful writings). Then I read Pride and Prejudice, Then Sense and Sensibility, then Mansfield Park, then Emma. Now I’m reading Northanger Abbey, and then I have Persuasion to go, and then just Sanditon and The Watsons (I read Lady Susan since it was attached to her juvenalia in that particular collection).
In the BookTube world, it is Jane Austen July. Besides the many readathons that I participate in throughout the year, I am having a Year of Christie. It’s been a fun reading project. I kicked it off with reading Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, a biography written by Lucy Worsley. One of these days I’ll read some Jane Austen. The closest I’ve come is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith. Happy Reading!
@Kat – love the idea of a year of Christie! That does sound like a fun reading project.
Northanger Abbey has been my favourite Austen for years! So quietly sarcastic and tongue in cheek. Love the “making fun of” gothic tropes!
Persuasion is my second favorite Austen novel, after Pride & Prejudice. While Pride & Prejudice is more of the laughing, jovial sister in the 5-book family, Persuasion is Austen’s more mature masterpiece, and I absolutely loved it. I look forward to reading your thoughts when you finish reading it later this year.
If you’re interested in watching a screen adaptation after you’ve read it, I 100% recommend the 1995 film starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds. He makes for a very handsome Captain Wentworth! (I’ve refused to watch the Netflix adaptation because Anne Elliot is portrayed more like an Elizabeth Bennett, and it just doesn’t make sense.)
@Kenia – good to know you’re voting for Persuasion. I finished Northanger Abbey and it was…fine. Not my favorite. But aren’t there six novels in the book family?