Oh the Pride...and the Prejudice....

I have been saying for years now how "boring" I thought Jane Austen novels were. They were "too hard" to read, they were "too wordy," and just uninteresting. But what always astounded me was the sheer number of people who claim her as one of their very favorite authors, and always say Pride & Prejudice is one of their very favorite books. I just didn't get it! But...well...here's my confession...I had never actually read one of her books. I know, I'm hanging my head in shame now as I write this! In my defense I had started Pride & Prejudice a few years ago, and got about 30 pages in, got bored, didn't want to have to "concentrate so hard to read for fun," and gave up. Well this year I put this classic Austen novel on my 28 books I have to read this year list thinking that the accountability would inspire me to pick it up again. So I downloaded it for free (it's a classic many classics are free) to my Kindle and started reading the other night. That night, I dreamed in Austen-English. My dream characters were running around with very verbose and proper speech. It was quite a bizarre experience! I kept reading, and am now about 20% through with the book, and have found myself laughing out loud in places! Yes, it's not the fastest moving novel I've ever read, but it is witty, has some fun characters who are intriguing to me, and I am quite enjoying myself! I'm learning. Don't always judge a book by a prior bad experience! My favorite quote so far: "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life." (Thanks for the advice, Jane. It's better to not know anything about the bad characteristics of the person you marry before you marry them....)