Everything Austen II Challenge - I'm Joining! What's Wrong with Me???

I'm joing the Everything Austen II Challenge!!

Yes, I swore I would not ever, ever, EVER join two challenges at the same time, again, in my life. I did. Not like on a stack of tomatoes or anything (that would be serious). But, I just happen to have just finished reading Emma and I just happen to plan to watch the A & E movie version of Emma soon. And, I just happen to have already started a Jane biography -- but at the rate I'm reading, undoubtedly won't finish it until well after the starting date of the challenge.

I've also been eyeing my copy of Scones & Sensibility for months. It's like . . . fate. The Austen waves have built up, leading to a massive earthquake and a tidal wave that tossed my soul into Hampshire (a shire which we once accidentally drove into, incidentally -- there was this sign that said, "Jane Austen Country" that my husband, his co-worker and I took as a subtle hint that we'd gone too far . . . it was dark and England's totally confusing at night, you see, and we were actually supposed to be in Surrey, not Hampshire).

So, I'm in. The Everything Austen II Challenge (<---click there to read Stephanie's post and sign up) officially begins on July 1, 2010 and runs through January 1, 2011. I'm cheating just a little by adding my current biography to my list because I'm reading so slowly that I don't think the few pages I've already read make me look too awfully guilty, but in the end I hope to read or view more than the 6 required, anyway.

Here's what I intend to read and view, at this point:

1. Jane's Fame by Claire Harman - a biography

2. Emma on DVD - the A & E version with Kate Beckinsale

3. Scones & Sensibility by Lindsay Eland (YA)

4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - a book I've wanted to read for quite some time

5. Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Pattillo (pretty sure I own a copy of this - must search)

6. ?? Maybe the A & E biography of Jane Austen - another that I'm pretty sure I own; I think it's included in my extra Pride & Prejudice set from A & E (I own 2 copies because the second set had a book and extra features and it was so pretty and on sale, and, and --).

As I perused the list at Stephanie's blog, I realized I'm already more of a Jane Fan than I imagined. I've read 4 of Austen's novels and 3 novellas (bound together as Lesley Castle), watched the Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice a squillion times and Sense & Sensibility almost as many. I've seen that stupid movie, Becoming Jane (sorry, that one just did not do it for me) and both read and watched Bridget Jones's Diary. I've read all of Marsha Altman's Pride & Prejudice sequels, Just Jane by Nancy Moser, and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre. I could probably go on. I think I will try to hush, though.

You should join this challenge. Really, you should. We'll have such a grand time. There should be a ball at the end, don't you think? We shall all wear gloves and pin our hair up in twisty little curls with sparkly things shimmering in our coiffures. We'll don beaded slippers and dance! The men will look terribly uncomfortable but shockingly handsome in those high collars and tails.

Oh, oh, oh. I must stop before I swoon!!!

My heart is in England, now.

Bookfool, Jane Fan and Utter Weakling

Updates on what I've read/viewed:

1 & 2. Emma - the book and the A & E movie

3. Emma & the Vampires by Jane Austen & Wayne Josephson

4. Mr. Darcy's Obsession by Abigail Reynolds

5. Persuasion - the 1995 BBC movie on DVD

6. Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo

7. Jane Austen Biography on DVD

8. The Making of Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version)

9. Persuasion - the Rupert Penry-Jones movie version on DVD