Jane Austen July TBR

 

Jane Austen July TBR

Jane Austen July is a month long readathon all about Jane Austen, her works, and her time period. I’ve wanted to join the challenge for years, but I’ve always had other books on my TBR that I’ve wanted to read first. But now that I finally have my TBR under control, I decided it was time to join the readathon.

There are seven challenges in this readathon: five books and two screen adaptations. There are also readalongs associated with the challenge. This year’s books are Sense and Sensibility, Sanditon, and The Watsons. I won’t be participating in the readalongs because I had already decided what I wanted to read before the readalong books were announced. You can find more about the challenge from the Youtube videos posted by the hosts of the challenge (Katie from Books and Things, Marissa from Blatantly Bookish, and Claudia from Spinster’s Library). There’s a Goodreads group where you can discuss about the challenge with other readers.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my choices for this year’s readathon and my reasons for picking them. (Links with * are Amazon affiliate links.)

 

Challenge 1: Read one of Jane Austen’s six main novels

This is obviously the main reason for a Jane Austen readathon: choosing one of her main novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, or Northanger Abbey.

My choice for the readathon is my favorite of Jane Austen’s novels, Pride and Prejudice*. It’s been a while since I last read it, so this is a perfect opportunity to fall in love with it again.

There’s another reason for picking the book. One of my reading goals this year is to try annotating a book. I’ve never done that – I’ve only ever underlined nonfiction books. But I’ve seen a lot of other people do it and I’m curious to see if I would like the practice. I thought that the most sensible approach is to pick a novel I’ve already read and loved so if I don’t like annotating, I know it’s not because of the book. And it will be a lot easier to know what to look for as I dive deeper into things like the story structure, plot, and characters. I can hopefully pick up things that I haven’t noticed before and deeper my understanding of Austen’s genius.

One of the reasons I haven’t annotated a book before is that I’m a bit hesitant to “ruin” a good book by underlinings and scribblings of my notes. But luckily, I already own an old and not-so-pretty paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice. It’s a Wordsworth edition I bought really cheap back in 2002. I also own an oh-so-pretty Penguin Clothbound edition which I’m slightly scared of reading – the cover illustrations have an unfortunate tendency to rub off. So I will keep my clothbound as the pretty Instagram-worthy copy and read only the introduction and notes from that – hopefully so carefully that I can keep the book in good condition! The annotations and underlinings go to the Wordsworth edition.

One more reason to read Pride and Prejudice is that I have an idea for a modern retelling of it, so reading it is also research for a potential novel project!

 

Challenge 2: Read a Jane Austen work that is not one of her six main novels

This can be her unfinished novels, her juvenilia aka the works she wrote between eleven and seventeen years of age, or her letters. My choice this July is the Penguin Clothbound edition of Love and Freindship* (the misspelling is intentional), which is a collection of Austen’s adolescent writings. I’ve read her juvenilia before, but not this edition, and I’m eager to revisit the stories. They are full of wit and humor, and some of the storylines are completely unhinged.

 

Challenge 3: Read a non-fiction work about Jane Austen or her time

There are tons of nonfiction works about Jane Austen and her works as well as the Regency period in general. My choice is Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home*. Worsley is one of my favorite historians and I love her documentaries. I’ve never read her books before, so I’m eager to see how she writes – I expect with the same twinkle in her eye as she talks in her documentaries. I probably can’t resist the temptation of watching Worsley’s Jane Austen documentary (again. I’ve seen it four or five times already.)

Not related to Jane Austen, but if I have time, I will also read Lucy Worsley’s If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home*, which is one of my favorite documentary series of hers (also seen that four times already!). If I don’t have time, guess what I’ll be reading in August.

 

Challenge 4: Read a retelling of Jane Austen book or a work of historical fiction set in Jane Austen’s time

This one was a bit more difficult to choose. There are a lot of Jane Austen retellings out there, but I must admit I’m really picky when it comes to them. I find that the prequels and sequels to Jane Austen novels do not capture Austen’s wit and style – the characters just aren’t the same. So those books as well as variations where Jane Austen’s characters find themselves in different situations I don’t find particularly alluring – maybe one day I’ll find something that I enjoy, but this time I decided to go for a modern retelling instead.

I read a really fun Pride and Prejudice retelling earlier this year, Of Love and Beer* by Amanda Darcy (you can find my review here), so I decided to go for a retelling of a different Austen novel instead and chose Much Ado about Nada* by Uzma Jalaluddin. It’s a Persuasion retelling (my second favorite of Austen novels) and it has the bonus of adding more diverse reads into my repertoire, as the main characters are Muslim.

If you want to take part in the readathon and are still unsure as to what to read for this particular challenge, it’s time for some awkward self-promo. My novel Caytee* is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. The main character is an avid reader of Young Adult paranormal romance novels and absolutely certain that the guy she has a crush on must secretly be a vampire. If you like snarky narrators who constantly break the fourth wall and make fun of overused tropes in YA books, Caytee makes a fun light summer read for you!

 

Challenge 5: Read a book by a contemporary of Jane Austen

Here’s where I had a lot of options to choose from! I initially wanted to read something by Frances Burney as I really loved her Evelina, but as it turns out, both Cecilia and Camilla are really long, and I wasn’t sure if I could finish them in one month. So instead, I picked an author and book I had just recently learned about: Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda*. I know nothing about the book except that someone on bookstagram recommended it, but I’m excited to read it.

 

Challenge 6: Watch a direct screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

This is inadvertently the challenge that I’ve already taken part in previous years, as I usually watch BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice every summer. That’s my choice for this year as well. It’s my favorite Austen adaptation and goes perfectly with reading the book!

 

Challenge 7: Watch a modern screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

I haven’t 100 per cent decided yet what I’ll be watching for this challenge, but I might go for Clueless. It’s great fun, and I already have it on my shelf so I don’t have to go hunting for a different movie – although I must admit I would be interested in revisiting Bride and Prejudice, as I remember it being funny as well. We’ll see what I’ll pick in the end!

Are you planning to take part in Jane Austen July?

*Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.