Ready, set, read

Amid all the concerts, exhibits, tea parties, balls, walking tours, screen adaptations, and souvenir merch celebrating the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, it’s refreshing to run across the occasional event geared to people who Just Want to (Re)Read The Books. For instance:

* The public library system in Fairfax County, VA, near Washington D.C., has chosen Pride and Prejudice as the focus of its annual “All Fairfax Reads” program this fall. Tie-in events include, it must be admitted, trivia competitions, movie viewings, and at least one tea party—but the goal is to get people reading.

“Think of it as one HUGE book club but without all the forced discussion and accountability,” the library’s press release exhorts. (“Forced” discussion? Are people usually inducted into book clubs at gunpoint?)  

For those who don’t mind an unforced discussion, on October 28, the library’s branch in Annandale is hosting a P&P conversation led by George Mason University English Professor Kristin Samuelian. Registration opens on September 30.

* A book group at the New York Public Library is spending the last half of 2025 reading its way through Austen’s novels in publication order. Alas, it’s too late to join the conversation about Sense and Sensibility (that was July) or Pride and Prejudice (August), but Mansfield Park is coming up next Monday, with Emma to follow on October 20. (Presumably, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are on tap for November and December, but it doesn’t look as if those dates have been announced yet.)

All the discussions are free, require no pre-registration, and take place at the library’s branch on 67^th Street in Manhattan. And if you don’t have time to reread Emma by next month, you’ll have another opportunity later this year: The library’s Bibliophiles In-Person Book Discussion group, which covers a variety of authors, is tackling Austen’s novel on December 9.

* But if you don’t happen to live within drop-in distance of Virginia or New York City, never fear: The New York Times Book Review’s online-only Book Club is featuring Pride and Prejudice this month. Janeites have until September 18 to contribute online comments on the novel; some of those insights may be referenced in the Book Review’s September 26 podcast.  

By late last week, scores of comments, most of them admiring, had already appeared. Some of the posters describe themselves as first-time readers, some as Janeite veterans, and some as non-fans hoping to finally figure out why Austen commands such devotion.   

And at least one fanatic says she plans to give the podcast a miss. “I won't be able to tune in, since any criticism of my favorite author will be a knife to my heart,” wrote one North Carolina Janeite. “My son narrowly avoided Fitzwilliam as his moniker. As a teen, he called Jane Austen ‘chick lit’ and was nearly disinherited.”

To which I can only reply: "What do you mean, 'nearly'?"