The Summertime Jane Austen Book Club: welcome to the Sanditon-along!

Hello hello.

How do you fancy sitting back, people-watching, and maybe falling in love Jane Austen-style this summer?

If that sounds like how you'd like to spend July then come and join in with an impromptu, informal, summer book club hosted by me (hello!) and Ruth from Everyday Life of a Suburban SAHM.

*WHAT WE'RE READING* 

Sanditon - an unfinished novel by Jane Austen (completed by other authors)

When Jane Austen died, 200 years ago next month, only 4 of the books we know and love her for - Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park and, my personal favourite, Emma - had been published.

Two further works - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published posthumously ... and then there was Sandition. Austen had only written 12 chapters of Sanditon when she died on July 18th 1817 and, since then it's been released into the world after being completed by several different authors. 

*WHY WE'RE READING IT*

Last week Ruth posted on Instagram (where she's @thestreetsofw5) about how she rescued an abandoned copy of Sanditon from the jaws of death* at a recycling centre. (OK, I may have exaggerated ... but she did rescue it from a recycling centre where it was surely only a few collections and deliveries away from being pulped!)

And her post leapt out at me because I have a copy of the exact same edition, which I rescued from a charity shop, and - like Ruth - I had never read it. So I suggested we join forces for a communal read-along: or - more precisely - a Sanditon-along!

*WHEN WE'RE READING IT*

We're opening the covers on Sanditon on July 1st 2017, and taking our reading at a leisurely pace throughout the month.

*HOW YOU CAN JOIN US*

Grab yourself a copy of Sanditon by Jane Austen by any which way you fancy before July 1st*.

• *Actually ... don't worry if you don't get it by that date - that's just when we're starting to read it, and chat about it in occasional blog/Instagram posts. Feel free to join in whenever you can,  but if you'd like the communal element try to get into it before the end of July. 
• Check your local library catalogue - because good books are good, but free books are even better! 
• I've had a quick look on Amazon (UK) and there are actually a few copies available of the same edition we're using.  
• Dip into eBay, charity/thrift shops and - apparently recycling centres are a good sourse of abandoned novels! 
• And of course there are ebook versions available out there too. Basically ... however you can get Sanditon under your nose is fine with us! 

It's almost guaranteed that we will end up reading different versions as it seems several other authors have completed what Jane Austen started. But that's no problem ... it'll probably lead us to interesting conversations about the various ways the story is taken by its different writers!

Throughout the month share your Sanditon reading experiences with us on social media / blogs:

• eg. Share photos of your copy, or your where you're reading it.
• Let us know how / if you're enjoying it.
• Use the hashtag #sanditonalong if you'd like us to easily find your post - and to find posts by others.
• Feel free to tag me on Instagram @withjuliekirk  and/or Ruth @thestreetsofw5 if you'd like to make sure we see your posts!

You can also join in by:

• Tweeting me @notesonpaper
• OR leaving a blog comment on this post, or any future blog posts I create during the #sanditonalong
• OR posting on your own blog and letting me know;
• OR swinging by my 'With Julie Kirk' Facebook Page.
• And Ruth has shared her own version of events on her blog here. 

So, how about it? Are you in?

It's such a wonderfully serendipitous chain of events that's led us, including you, here, now ... 

Firstly, someone chose to leave that book in the recycling centre. Then Ruth just happened to notice it, decide to take it home and post about it on Instagram. Where I just happened to see it and recognise it as exactly the same edition as the one lounging on my shelf. And now, just days later, here we are planning to read Jane Austen's final, unfinished novel, during the 200th anniversary of her death ... and beyond.  And encouraging others - you - to join us in doing the same. 

I've been meaning all year to find an appropriate, meaningful  way to mark her anniversary not merely because it was an important one of 200 years, but also because of her age when she died: she was 41 and 7 months. On her anniversary I'll be 41 and 6 months ... and I've felt somehow obliged to consciously mark the occasion. And now, almost accidentally, I know what I'll be doing! 

I'll be reading her final book alongside a network of readers who, like me, might well be encountering it for the first time. 

The whole occasion, of our pop-up Sanditon-along book club, is almost perfectly Austenian in itself! What with its themes of coincidences, the 'almost-didn't-happen'-ness, the love of books and reading, the sharing of stories between female friends ... it fits happily within the Austen universe. 

And Ruth and I hope you'll get chance to join us there! 

Julie 

So tell me ... are you going to go find/dust-off a copy and get ready to start reading with us on July 1st 2017?!!