Sunday, January 13, 2008

Jane Austen's Persuasion

Thanks to the HeadGirl's post at The Common Room a while back, I learned about PBS's Masterpeice Theatre's Series based on Jane Austen's books. It caught my attention because I've seen some of her books on lists of books to read and I have some online friends that have mentioned their love of some of Jane Austen's books in the past. I can't quite recall if I have ever read one of her books or not, though I think I may have read one for a university course at some point.

One thing I have enjoyed doing with my children over the years is finding a book that has been made into a movie and reading it before watching the movie. When I heard about this series I decided to mention it to DD#1, who is 15, and ask her if she would be interested in us attempting to read the books and then watch the movies as they are aired. She agreed to give it a try so I went off in search of a schedule and the books. I found the schedule easy enough but getting my hands on actual copies of the books wasn't so easy. I do have some ordered from our library through interlibrary loan but until we can get our hands on them we are having to take advantage of online copies of the books, and I am so thankful that they are available.

This week we attempted to read Persuasion in preparation for watching the movie tonight. I managed to read the whole book and quite enjoyed it. DD only managed to struggle her way through about half of the book, but we did have a great discussion on the part that she has read. She's not really enjoying reading it online and thinks she would have done better with it if she had had an actual book to read. I'm hoping that watching the movie tonight will help her be more interested in putting more effort into reading the next book.

I'm really looking forward to watching the movie tonight. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the book. If you decide to read the book or watch the movie I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.