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Nancy J and I are planning a buddy read for Sense and Sensibility and we'd like to invite anyone interested to join us.

I tend to read these classics rather slowly, so I'm sure that there is plenty of time for others to join us.

I reread it a year or 2 ago - and will chime in once some discussion starts.

Fran, I started this when you set up the thread, but I’ve had trouble connecting with it. I loved every Jane Austen book I read, but keep getting stuck with this one. Maybe I’m expecting too much. I I love the subtle humor in her books, and I know there is some here too, but I’m not hearing it, or just not appreciating it. At the beginning, her half brother keeps deciding how much money to give them, but the amount gets lower every time. The way it’s written, it could be funny, but it’s not. (As social commentary about inheritance and entailment of estates, it’s no longer interesting.). Or it’s just me, and I’ll love it when I’m feeling better.

There are at least 20 different audio editions of this book, and many of them are free on audible, including the featured one with Rosamund Pike. That’s very unusual. Other narrators were better at the beginning but she gets better, and handles male voices well. I am at least half way, but I keep setting it aside, and have to reread big sections when I pick it up again.

I know I saw the movie 20? years ago but I have no memory of it other than I liked the actresses and there was a lot of crying. I think I like the actresses more than I like the characters. I’ve heard Fanny Price called too judgmental, but I find these characters more so.

Have you started it?

I've started it, but I am having problems with it (along with about 4 other books I have started).
I read so many classics when I was in high school, but truthfully, I find that at this point in my life, I just don't love them.
I've had this book forever and do want to finish it, but it is a struggle and I keep finding something I would rather read.)
I'm interested in the whole Sense- Elinor and Sensibility- Marianne within the family and how they play out.

I guess my question is, are you willing to struggle on? I'm not tossing it in yet, but going at a very slow pace. I am currently stuck on page 102

Booknblues wrote: "I've started it, but I am having problems with it (along with about 4 other books I have started).
I read so many classics when I was in high school, but truthfully, I find that at this point in my..."

I want to complete it, because now I need to know what happens next, but it also fits the September tag, so we can wait. It might pull you back in, but if not that’s OK too. I have several other books started too,

[ If you do keep reading, I’d like to hear what you think of the character who is (or says she is) secretly engaged to the man Elinor loves. ]

I think I got spoiled by all the fast paced genre books I read this year. I’m finding it much harder to read literary fiction now. I wanted to read Ali Smith this month, but the last one I read took me a very long time, despite its short length. I kept going down rabbit holes online and in my thoughts. I’m not sure I would appreciate her atm.

I started a faster paced book today that might fit my current steeplechase tag. It’s very funny.

I've been thinking of starting a footnotes thread called my summer of reading dilemmas. I normally read only one or two books at a time, and my reading flows pretty freely from one book to another, but that is not the case this summer. Right now I have 7 books on my currently reading book which I am not quite ready to throw on my dnf. This never happens to me. I may move one to the dnf, because I need to return it to the library or I may blow through it and finish it this weekend.

Anyway, I will keep on with Sense and Sensibility, I am determined to finish it, but will do so slowly, I think.

Booknblues wrote: "I've been thinking of starting a footnotes thread called my summer of reading dilemmas. I normally read only one or two books at a time, and my reading flows pretty freely from one book to another,..."

Lordy, sign me up! I've had bouts of that off and on for months. Currently have one going with I think 8 different books? So not typical. I might have 2 going at once, rarely 3 -- but it's a fiction and a non-fiction because non-fiction are slow reads for me and I can't necessarily read them after a long day at work. I add a third - an ebook - if I'm reading a bunch of print books because old eyes need better light and large print sometimes.

I'm going to chime in at this point - I re-read this just in the last couple of years and ended up demoting it in my personal rankings of Austen's novels. I seriously doubt I'll ever read it again. But I still gave it 4 stars and there was much that was brilliant.

I found it at times muddy, overly long, even repetitive - and it was her first published novel, so it is less mature. But she deftly created memorable characters and she incorporates so many themes which she continues to explore in later works. She also has at least one sister in the family who has no one to talk to - here that is Elinor - in my favorite Austen Persuasion it's of course Anne.

Part of what affected my re-read was my love for and familiarity with the 1995 movie, especially the depth brought by Kate Winslet to Marianne - when all I wanted to do as I read her on the page was slap her! Willoughby is also a far more sympathetic, less 'bad' character in the movie than in the book. And (view spoiler)[ there is absolutely no way I see a marriage between Marianne and the Captain as actually ending as successful between the characters as they and it are portrayed in the book. (hide spoiler)]

Do stick with the book though. Once the sisters get to London, and on to the end of the novel, there is a great deal new and different from what we all know from the movie and gives refreshing feeling of discovery as you read.

Here's a link to that review should you be interested: Theresa's Review

I put the book on pause for now, but I’ll definitely get back to it soon. Theresa, I feel the same way about Marianne so far! My first impression of the character came from Kate Winslet, who is incredibly talented. I hope that I’ll see more resemblance later in the book.

I think I have more unfinished books started than ever before. It’s out of control. Can you get ADHD from reading challenges? As addictions go, I suppose it could be worse. I’m not worried about liver damage or getting arrested (unless I have overdue books).

There are definitely far worse vices than too many unfinished books!