There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

I stayed at home all last week, and it was indeed a real comfort. I've slept a lot, watched a lot of movies and TV, and most of all, read a lot.

Karis and I went to see The Jane Austen Book Club when she was last home. It inspired me to purchase the book, which I had read a few years ago. So since I had all this free time, I decided to re-read it. But this time, I read the appropriate Austen novel before reading its chapter in Fowler's book. Well, I didn't re-read Pride & Prejudice or Persuasion - I have read those so many times that it really wasn't necessary. But I probably hadn't read Northanger Abbey more than once, hadn't read Mansfield Park much either, and it has been years since I read Emma or Sense & Sensibility.

Whenever I try to write about books or movies and explain why I like them, I wonder that I ever made it as an English major. Everything I try to say sounds trite and silly. I guess I've just lost the ability to think and write critically about them, and it makes me rather sad.

So I'll just say that like so many others, I like Pride & Prejudice best. Then Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and lastly Mansfield Park. (It was interesting to read in the notes to The Jane Austen Book Club that most of Austen's family preferred Mansfield Park. I suppose because more than any of the others, this one is about morality - her father was a clergyman, after all.)

As for The Jane Austen Book Club, I love the structure of the book, the idea, the characters, the way you find Austen quotes in the stories about the modern characters... I want to join their club. After all, "In three or four years, it would be time to read Austen again."

P.S. Yes, the title of this post is an Austen quote. It's from Emma.

Instead of a Fortune Cookie today, another Austen quote (one of my favorites.)
One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.