Everything Austen Challenge

Friends, there is so much Austen Fun (yes, fun with a capital F) in the blog world right now! AustenFest has concluded; it had some great author interviews and I won some coffee (no books, sadly). Now it's time for more AustenFun!

Blogger Stephanie @ Stephanie's Written Word has introduced the Everything Austen Challenge on her blog. For the next six months participants are to pick out six Austen-themed things you want to finish to complete the challenge. Those "things" can be reading a book (Austen or Austen Fanfic), watching a movie or crafting in some way shape or form. It's pretty wide open. Sign up at the blog (more details there, too) and you can win the DVD for Lost in Austen as a prize!

For twice the challenge, the ladies at AustenProse have upped the ante--if participants do 12 things Austen, not only will participants be in the running for the DVD, but also for a book from Laurel Ann's reading list of her Austen things at AustenProse. See Stephanie's entry here about the 12 things.

So here are my six things. Many of these books are in my book pile, so this is good for me. I will get them read! (I am afraid to commit to 12 for fear of not being able to meet them as my reading/movie watching/all things me time is limited these days.)

• A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love & Faith by Lori Smith (memoir)
• Mansfield Park Revisited: A Jane Austen Entertainment by Joan Aiken
• A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Austen-Leigh
• 101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen: The Truth About the World's Most Intriguing Literary Heroine by Patrice Hannon
• Find a copy of the Jane Austen Cookbook by Maggie Black OR Cooking with Jane Austen by Kirsten Olsen OR Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson and make something from one of them--find a recipe for scones or biscuits perhaps?
• Watch Miss Austen Regrets, which I taped when it aired on PBS and just discovered that I never watched. (This is what happens when you rearrange your living room and have to rearrange the DVD's/VHS tapes.)

Phew! I think there might be some more fanfic on my list--I mean, I could just type all of the books I know I want to read, but it might be a bit much. Plus, there's always reading Persuasion again. Or watching both the newer BBC/PBS version and then comparing it to Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds. Hmmm....