Pride and Prejudice

Confession #1: Although I consider myself a lover of books, I have never loved Pride and Prejudice.  Gasp!  I can hear the murmuring of any book lovers reading this.  Not love Pride and Prejudice?  How could it be?  Well...  I read it in 8th grade.  Maybe I was too young to understand the story.  But ever since then, not only had I never again lifted it from a shelf... I had also avoided all Jane Austen novels.

Confession #2: Postpartum has been very difficult for me.  I have really struggled, and am not going to go into it to great detail.  Suffice it to say that I have battled some postpartum depression and anxiety and just in the past month have felt an "awakening" of sorts.  I suddenly have found myself actually wanting to be out and about.  Problem is, when it has been so long since you have had a social life... they don't just materialize out of thin air.  Especially not when you have two kids that constrain your time.

Solution: Visiting teachers stopped by and just mentioned that they had recently started a book club.

The catch: They were meeting in three days to discuss the first book... you got it, Pride and Prejudice.

I found myself so excited at the idea of being out for an hour or two without the kids, and being part of a book club again, that I decided to attempt to read the book.  I really do love books, and I especially love book clubs.  So I figured it was time to visit Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy again, hoping for the best.  The library's copies were all checked out so I went to the book store and bought a copy.

In the past, before Ephram, reading a book in three days would not have been an issue.  But I really wasn't sure how I was going to squeeze it in between all of the baby care stuff.  The answer was easy.  I turned off the television.  Instead of watching tv while I fed the baby, I read my book.  I even read it outloud to him and to Charlie.  The result?  A very pleasant three days that included hours of more reading time then I would have otherwise had.

The surprise?  I loved it.  I couldn't put it down.  I even gave up my precious sleep one night and read it until 2am.  I was absorbed in this world that suddenly seemed to relate to everything going on around me.

Did I finish the book?  Not before the book club meeting.  I still had two chapters to go.  But it didn't matter.  I still had plenty to discuss about the book.  And I hurried home to finish it the next day.  Then I watched the BBC version of it, because it happened to be the version available on Netflix's "Watch Instantly".  It last five hours, and I watched it while I was nursing Ephram over the next few days.

I can't believe I ever disliked this book.  I think I need to read the rest of Jane Austen's works now!  But first I am reading the book for this month... Same Kind of Different as Me, which is proving to be just as good.