In a conference room at my office, the idea was born: A little book club for the readers who were always talking books over the tops of the cubicles. Our first pick, quite by accident, was the Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, prompting all of us to say--- “Hey we should read all the Jane Austen Books!” It seemed like such a great idea. We’d read one every other month for a year and be Austen Experts. And as we read them we could review the corresponding chapter in the Jane Austen Book Club at the end. Fun, right?
Putting it into practice, however, has had a few bumps. Maybe we picked the wrong book with which to start. October was Emma. One by one, all five of us abandoned her. We were all sort of enjoying it, but not enough to stick with it. Maureen claimed bad timing—it needs to be a winter-Sunday-afternoon- kind-of-book, not a busy-fall-during-marching-band-season book, when you only have 15 minute blocks at a time to read. For me, it was just too much of a meandering plot or lack thereof. Maybe I’ll finish it someday…
So this is the non-review for Jane Austen’s Emma: I started it. Emma is a smart, but Clueless busybody. And she’s kinda bitchy. Mr. Knightly (George, not John) is a solid 9 on the HTAF scale but not hot enough for me to keep my hands on him…I mean the book. I made it to page 172. But I do know how it ends thanks to Gweneth Paltrow and Wikipedia.
We’re going to take a hiatus from Austen for a few months…
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