What I've Been Reading Lately

I'm reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen right now. Since there won't be any new Jane Austen novels coming out (and since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies doesn't count), I'm trying to space out my reading of her novels. There are only so many of her books to read in a lifetime and I don't want to waste them all in my twenties. :) "Well, just read them again," you might say. I wish I had the momentum to read books twice, but whenever I try, I lose interest pretty quickly. The first three Harry Potter novels are just about the only stories I've been able to sit down and read twice all the way through. Besides, I'll never get through the list of books I want to read if I start reading some of them over again.

Anyway, I just love Jane Austen. Here's one of my favorite excerpts from Northanger Abbey:

She went home very happy. The morning had answered all her hopes, and the evening of the following day was now the object of expectation, the future good. What gown and what head-dress she should wear on the occasion became her chief concern. She cannot be justified in it. Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim. Catherine knew all this very well; her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before; and yet she lay awake ten minutes on Wednesday night debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin, and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening. This would have been an error in judgment, great though not uncommon, from which one of the other sex rather than her own, a brother rather than a great aunt, might have warned her, for man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown. It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull, or the jackonet. Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter. But not one of these grave reflections troubled the tranquillity of Catherine.

Her commentary of social interactions is so insightful and succinct. I laughed out loud reading this part because it is just so true, and I never would have thought to say it like that.

Some other books I've been reading lately:

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi....Chuck recommended this one to me. I'm not typically a science fiction fan, but this one was enjoyable. It's more philosophical than it is space aliens and light sabers. Though Chuck mislead me into thinking there was a love story (there's not) to get me to read it. The downside of someone knowing you so well, I guess. :)

Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond...This one IS a love story. And a really good one at that. And it actually happened which makes it even more fun to read. Probably my favorite read of 2011.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins...Ok, so everyone has read this. But it's Just. So. Good. I read through the whole series in a couple of weeks. I brought the books with me wherever I went just in case I'd get a moment to read. They are addicting.