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The Internet is for Books

So dudes, a Book Club Blog. Pretty cool, aye?

Now, let me tell you about something awesome. Because Pride and Prejudice has no copyright, it can be reproduced for free by anyone, in any form. This really amazing organisation called Project Gutenberg has utilised this, and made it available over the internet for anyone who should be so interested.

The P & P page is here.


Of course, now you have to read it. Unless, of course, you've always been dying to read War & Peace.

Bookclub Meeting - Wednesday 25th March

For the first book club meeting, we decided it would be good to start by thinking about what makes a book good.  For that reason, we thought we’d start with an old favourite, Jane Austen’s amazing Pride & Prejudice. I know, awesome! Pride & Prejudice has been one of English’s most well-loved and well-known pieces of literature for almost 200 years.  Why? What makes it so special? What makes a book a classic?  These are questions you could ponder as you read.  But don’t worry – nobody’s gonna ask you to write any essays.  Book club is for fun! Pride & Prejudice is a book all girls should read, and I’m sure many of you have all ready. If not, please don’t be intimidated.  Although it be slow moving and the language is a bit old fashioned, stick with it and you most certainly be rewarded.

Once you’ve finished the book, you might want to read a few others for slightly different perspectives.  Here are a few suggestions:

• Jane Austen’s other books – Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Lady Susan, Emma, Northanger Abbey.
• Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding – for a modern day (and hilarious) adaptation
• Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte or Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – published less than 25 years later, a huge contrast in styles.
• The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler

Or you could watch these:

• The 2005 movie version directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfayden (but only after you’ve actually read it!!)
• The 1996 BBC version starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle – far better, but much longer, it’s six 45 minute episodes.
• The BBC has also done several adaptations most of Austen’s other books, if you don’t has time to read them (though you should at some point), and most are available at the public library in the young adults’ classic novels dvd section.
• Becoming Jane, a 2007 movie about the life of Jane Austen starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy(!) – though don’t believe a word of it.

Happy reading!

 Jessie and Romana