Everything Austen Challenge: All Done!
Little Yuzu is Watching
Glee, Volume One: Road to Sectionals
Matthew Morrison, Lea Michelle, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley,
Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Mark Salling, Jenna Ushkowitz
Yes! I completed the Everything Austen Challenge before the end of the year. I even did some extra stuff for the challenge, because I'm just that big of a nerd. It was certainly a fun challenge, and I enjoyed reading other challenge participants' journals for reviews and insights on their own choices. I had one last book to read, and it was a fitting way to end the challenge: a collection of quotes from Jane Austen's personal letters and published works.
The Wit & Wisdom of Jane Austen compiled by Dominique Enright
The Wit & Wisdom
of Jane Austen
★★★★☆This book is broken down into chapters, e.g., history, balls, fashion, marriage, finance, family. Enright introduces each chapter with some information on that subject. She also gives bits of history about Austen's life to help the reader understand where Austen was coming from. I recognized many quotes while reading, either from her novels or some of her personal letters which I'd found particularly funny. I learned new things from this book too. For instance, Ralph Waldo Emerson (who I used to like, but now...not so much) said Austen is "without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world" and calls her "sterile in artistic invention." Pffft! While it's fine to read this book to get a bunch of great Austen quotes at once, it doesn't compare to reading the original works and letters from which the quotes came.
I looked through the lists I keep of the books I've read and movies I've watched this year, and it looks like I read & watched loads of Austen before the Everything Austen Challenge was announced. I am psychic! ;P It was certainly an Austen-filled year. Here's a rundown of my pre-challenge Austen indulgences (which, combined with my challenge items, brings my Jane Austen total to 35 for 2009):
1. Emma by Jane Austen
2. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
3. Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange
4. The History of England by Jane Austen
5. Just Jane: A Novel of Jane Austen's Life by Nancy Moser
6. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
7. Miss Austen Regrets starring Olivia Williams and Greta Scacchi
8. Jane Austen: An Illustrated Treasury by Rebecca Dickson
9. The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston
10. Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron
11. The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World by Margaret C. Sullivan
12. Bride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson
13. Austenland by Shannon Hale
14. Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Patillo
15. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
16. Letters from Pemberley: The First Year by Jane Dawkins
17. Pride and Prejudice (Insight Edition) by Jane Austen
18. Cassandra's Sister by Veronica Bennett
19. The Darcys & the Bingleys: A Tale of Two Gentlemen's Marriages to Two Most Devoted Sisters by Marsha Altman
Even if there isn't going to be another Everything Austen Challenge in 2010, I think I'll personally challenge myself to read more about Jane Austen and some of the many works inspired by her. God knows there's plenty out there!