It was in the scorching days of August that I was speaking to a friend over the phone. Being fans of the written word, the conversation naturally turned to literature. To my horror, she told me that from time to time she would write in her books. On the pages themselves. For someone who always takes the utmost care to keep their books in pristine condition (and often fails), this was heresy of the highest order.
Little notes from yourself and little bits you had to look up every time otherwise, she explained, were chronicled in there forever. Although that made sense, I just couldn't bring myself to sully the leaves of a pulped tree.
A few months later, I had finally regained my reading pace and got through Mort by Terry Pratchett in a week, paltry compared to the month-and-a-half I spent pouring over Anne Frank's diary. I was too precious, was the problem. I always tried to pour over every word to make the novelty of reading something new last, which made reading any novel feel like I was taking on Dostoevsky's masterpiece.
What could I do to get myself through books faster? There were some that had been littering my shelf for years. Would I ever get through the Count of Monte Cristo? Or Great Expectations?
Or...my gorgeous hardcover of Pride and Prejudice?
I had received the book from a friend of the family for Christmas in 2018, and had given up on the classic in early 2019, the first time I had ever given up on a book. It wasn't that I didn't like it in some parts, having spent the majority of my reading time living vicariously through the ballroom exploits of Lizzy and co., but what I had found to be the dryness in some places proved too much. It had stopped my reading streak in its tracks, so I had to put it aside for greener pastures.
But now, in the year of 2020, I was a little older, a little wiser and ready to tackle Austen into the dirt. Admittedly, seeing the same friend get through the book in about a month around the same time was also a bit of a motivator, as was the hubris that a book filled with my inane thoughts would be an excellent gift.
I pulled it out of the back of the shelf, dusted it off, skimmed the pages, and left it to rot on my desk for the best part of December. The task of going back to the one book that had got the better of me proved to be more daunting than I expected. Day after day, "Annotate P&P C1" taunted me from my to-do list. It had bested me yet again.
But! This is not the end of the story.
On the night (well, early morning) of the 20th, I tossed and turned and wriggled and writhed in bed, utterly awake, yet utterly exhausted all at once. This is a rather common experience for me, don't shed any tears, but it gave me the push to finally make marks of graphite on my copy.
By the time chapter one was done, it was 2am and the pages were filled with little notes and analysis of the text. Being an English student can be useful from time to time. I was pleased to have finally got back into it, chronicling thoughts I'd had on Mr and Mrs Bennet's conversation after weeks of them popping up while skimming the next, finally a part of history.
In fact, I was so pleased with my work that I decided to pad out the website start a running feature turning my notes into little articles on here, an entry for each chapter should keep me motivated this time, and I'll stretch my reviewing muscles once it's done if I feel like it.
This is a series that I started on Tumblr at the begining of 2021. Currently inactive, I'm uploading them all on here for archival purposes and in case I return to the series in the next year. I'll be removing specific references to Tumblr, but everything else should remain intact.
