Double-Dipping: Everything Austen Challenge Update + What's on my iPod
Everything Austen Challenge: Item Two: Reread Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (DailyLit)
I am still adjusting to my iPhone. I do not really enjoy typing more than a sentence on it (hence, I'm sitting in yet another cafe with free wifi, using my laptop), and reading pdf files has resulting in varying degrees of success (reading installments of A Tale of Two Cities, success; reading facilmiles of seventeenth-century broadsheets, head-splitting headache of failure).
This brings us to Item Two in the Everything Austen Challenge. I reread S&S last December and was struck anew by the novel's poignent humor and realism (I usually hate terms like "transcendence" or "universalism," but the novel has aged remarkably well in terms of the relatability of its characters and their conversations).
Reading it on the iPhone in daily doses from DailyLIt has been a treat. It is so tempting to request extra installments and just spend the day reading the novel. Receiving snippets of the text highlights the attention to detail found in Austen's writing: Col. Brandon subtly shifting the conversation to save Elinor from too much scrutiny; how vulgar Mrs. Jennings actually is behind all her good-natured humor; Marianne's misplaced confidence in her own sixteen-year old assessments of the world . . . and how her excessive sensibility results in a paucity of empathy, self-knowledge, and sense.
Currently, I'm at the point where Col. Brandon's called away to attend to Miss Williams. I had forgotten how blunt Mrs. Jennings is about her suspicions. I'm looking forward to my next installment, which is due to arrive in my Inbox this Monday.
Links Cited:
"Everything Austen Challenge" @ Stephanie's Written Word [thewrittenword.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/introducing-the-everything-austen-challenge-with-prizes/]
Sense and Sensibility @ Daily Lit [www.dailylit.com/books/sense-and-sensibility]
Daily Lit Official Site [www.dailylit.com/]
I am still adjusting to my iPhone. I do not really enjoy typing more than a sentence on it (hence, I'm sitting in yet another cafe with free wifi, using my laptop), and reading pdf files has resulting in varying degrees of success (reading installments of A Tale of Two Cities, success; reading facilmiles of seventeenth-century broadsheets, head-splitting headache of failure).
This brings us to Item Two in the Everything Austen Challenge. I reread S&S last December and was struck anew by the novel's poignent humor and realism (I usually hate terms like "transcendence" or "universalism," but the novel has aged remarkably well in terms of the relatability of its characters and their conversations).
Reading it on the iPhone in daily doses from DailyLIt has been a treat. It is so tempting to request extra installments and just spend the day reading the novel. Receiving snippets of the text highlights the attention to detail found in Austen's writing: Col. Brandon subtly shifting the conversation to save Elinor from too much scrutiny; how vulgar Mrs. Jennings actually is behind all her good-natured humor; Marianne's misplaced confidence in her own sixteen-year old assessments of the world . . . and how her excessive sensibility results in a paucity of empathy, self-knowledge, and sense.
Currently, I'm at the point where Col. Brandon's called away to attend to Miss Williams. I had forgotten how blunt Mrs. Jennings is about her suspicions. I'm looking forward to my next installment, which is due to arrive in my Inbox this Monday.
Links Cited:
"Everything Austen Challenge" @ Stephanie's Written Word [thewrittenword.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/introducing-the-everything-austen-challenge-with-prizes/]
Sense and Sensibility @ Daily Lit [www.dailylit.com/books/sense-and-sensibility]
Daily Lit Official Site [www.dailylit.com/]