Jane Austen

This month's Classics Club question is about Jane Austen.  They ask why you hate or love Jane Austen and what your favorite or least favorite novel.  Another fellow Classics Clubber Roofbeam Reader talked about how Mark Twain really didn't like Austen.  He shared a quote in which Twain said, "Whenever I take up Pride and Prejudice, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin bone."  My question with this quote, is that if he knew that he didn't like the book the first time, why did he keep reading it over and over again?

Personally, I do read Jane Austen over and over again--and I LOVE it.  Sometimes when I have had a long day,  I turn my MP3 player on set it to turn off in about 20 minutes and then I listen to a book that I know really well on tape.  I can just focus on the words and ignore what is going on in my brain from the day.  Sometimes the book of choice is Pride and Prejudice.  So I don't want to beat her with her shin bone over that book.

The cool thing about this question is that I am have set a goal to read all of the main Austen novels because I bought this complete set a while ago and I haven't ever really read them all.  I have read Sense and Sensibility this year, and technically finished listening to Pride and Prejudice this year--but I'm not counting that.  My favorite of hers is actually Emma--I think because she reminds me the most of myself.  Persuasion might be my least favorite...but it has been awhile, and I had to read it in college so I read it REALLY fast.  So maybe by the end of this year I will have a clear "ranking".