Amadan na Briona

You've seen the movie(s), now read the book. I never thought I'd be a Jane Austen fan, but I found her writing to be so carefully and prettily constructed that, as different as it is from any contemporary style, it wasn't hard to follow once you get used to it, and it became very easy to admire just what a clever and witty writer she was.

For me, this overshadowed the romance, since I'm not a reader of romances in general, and anyway, everyone knows the plot, right? But every movie adaptation loses something, and the details in the book give so much more meaning behind each twist and turn in the story and the ways the characters relate to each other. It's a perfectly-constructed novel with brilliant (and often very funny) writing. This really should be on everyone's bookshelf. I am resolved to read more novels by Miss Austen (and also to try to stop writing like her -- after listening to the audiobook for the past few days, I find all my sentences coming out in an excess of that style which is not my own).