What classic has most surprised you so far and why?

The classic that has probably surprised me the most is a tie between Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.  I love Persuasion, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice....but I barely finished Sense and Sensibility and I haven't been able to finish Mansfield Park.....I don't know why but it surely is surprising to me that I haven't enjoyed these two Jane Austen classics. Maybe one of these days I will try to get through Mansfield Park and I will try Sense and Sensibility.

January 2016's Question Meme from Classics Club (Repeat of February 2013).  Add your answer.

#ReadingCram and Spelling Challenge

Yay for more reading :) I am doing well with finishing Insurgent before the end.  And I caught up on a lot of online reading....though not books--it is nice to know that last night my Feedly was caught up and today my e-mail box only has one e-mail left in it :)

Today Kimberly Faye is hosting a challenge in which you spell a word with your book titles.  I spelled Staff :)

Sense and Sensibility
To Kill a Mockingbird
Angels and Demons
Fablehaven
Feels Like the First Time

Day 4 #ReadingCram and Spine Poetry Challenge

Today I feel pretty victorious---I finished Jane Eyre which translated to me reading about 150 pages today.  I loved how it was for work....so when I got a couple of free moments today--I could read :)  I loved how on my Goodreads--which I finally updated--I just have been lazy--and I have been able to push complete twice in one week.  That like never happens! This is my most successful read-a-thon yet!

Today's challenge is a Spine Poetry Challenge...I might be able to do a picture of these books if I had Sense and Sensibility in its own book...so maybe I will update this post later with a photo since I still have Fablehaven from the library.  It probably feels more like a sentence....but I'm not great at writing poetry. Thanks to Lori @ Writing My Own Fairy Tale for the challenge!

Jane Eyre with her
Sense and Sensibility went to 
Fablehaven in 
1984 To Kill a Mockingbird

http://juliababyjenreadingroom.blogspot.com/2013/12/reading-cram-day-4-spine-poetry.html

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".     

Top 3 Posts of the Month...February Edition

This was fun to do after January ended, so after February is complete I thought maybe it should become tradition.  Reading the "January Edition" again I commented at the beginning about how my 365 project was coming along...this month was harder than the first month--and I didn't think that was possible!! My life has been really really really boring I think the last couple of days---I don't exaggerate when I say that Saturday-Wednesday was pretty much grading when I came home from work---in which I had done more grading.  I hope that March will calm down and I can get back to reading articles and books so you can get more opinions and reviews.  I also want March to have my first few posts about knitting...which I haven't gotten to on here yet and I want to. So without further adieu...here is the top three posts of February

3. Book Review of Sense and Sensibility...posted on February 6, 2013.

The sad or funny thing about this post was that I first started talking about having read Sense and Sensibility back at the beginning of January...yes it took me that long to finish.  With the long car rides that week that helped wrap the whole thing up.

2. My Classics Club Reading List...posted on February 16, 2013.

I finally completed that idea and posted it--I hope that as the month goes on I will get more involved in the Classics Club and I can write more about it and visit other people's blogs.

1. Book Review of Feels Like the First Time...posted on February 2, 2013.

The coolest thing about this...the author saw my post!! I was very flattered to have his comments on my blog. I was actually a bit nervous to do a post on this one because I figured it is not one people are going to find worthwhile when it is just a simple little freebie from Kindle and it is just a simple romance...but the response has been good.

I won't try to read too much into the fact that most of the views were for book posts...and at the beginning of the month. Well I hope that you guys will still stick with me even if my last week or so has been pretty lame.  As my husband said to me just yesterday....I am glad you have stuck with it because most people would have given up by now.  So here's to not giving up!

Keeping with tradition of a photo of me for this blog post...Me with my sisters!!!
This is still my favorite pic of us even if it is like a year and a half old

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

Title: Sense and Sensibility

Author: Jane Austen

Genre: Fiction/Classics

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Why Did I Read This Book? It was the first novel that Jane Austen published, and I am trying to read all of her novels this year.

Summary: The story follows the family of the Dashwoods.  The father of the family dies, which leaves the mother and three sisters in an interesting bind.  They end up staying in a cottage on the land of with a distant relative.  At this cottage they met a variety of people that come to mean a lot to the family.  We follow their lives and learn of their pasts which ends up affecting their present. I don't want to give too much away, but there are a lot of love triangles to go with it all :) 

What Did I Love: The twists and turns of the love story were very entertaining.  It kept me on my toes the whole time.  I also liked how it fit with the title.  Some of the lovers have sense, but the good ones have sensibility.   

What Did I Hate: Soo many characters!!  You can tell that this is her first novel, because her writing style is not polished.  The biggest thing for me was the fact that I couldn't keep all of the characters apart easily until about halfway through because she refers to most of them by their last names.  And they give big speeches and you lose track of who is speaking.  By halfway through, I had really gotten to know the characters so I could tell the difference better...so it is not a complete deal breaker.

Courtesy of amazon.com