Leisure Reading

I’ve picked up leisure reading again. I used to read a lot more when I was in lower forms. After F.5, I seemed to have read less and less. I read nothing except textbook and journals when I was at HKU. I don’t even bother to read the newspaper here in London. I do, however, read a lot more journals than ever.

But, despite my interest in Linguistics, if you let me choose between a novel or a Phonology textbook, I’d always go for the novel. I was so glad that I’ve rekindled my love for leisure reading.

I was in Bath for a day and visited the Jane Austen centre 2 weeks ago. I came back, wanted to do nothing but spend some time with Lizzy and Mr. Darcy. I searched the web and came across this brilliant ‘fanfiction’. To call it a ‘fanfiction’ would be a travesty. It was an expansion of Pride and Prejudice. They author wrote up the bits that happen behind-the-scene and it was a 260000-word piece of art. I actually felt like I was reading Jane Austen. The novel gave me insights into how the protagonists are characterised in the original as well as satisfy my desire to know everything that happen. You know, Miss Austen was very implicit on certain topics. I just sat there for some 6 hrs and read. You can’t imagine how enthralled I was and reading at 2am was so peaceful. It was an escape.

Now I think of it, really, Mr. Darcy has killed every girl’s dream. I always like Lizzy more than Mr. Darcy because such a man doesn’t exist in real life. He’s too good and too generous to be true. And now I fully understand why Colin Firth became a national sensation playing Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation. Not that he was not good in it because he was. He was brilliant in that role! I guess somehow female of all ages projected their version of Mr. Darcy on him and he portrayed the character so well that he IS Mr. Darcy. And who doesn’t love Mr. Darcy?

終於看完了韓寒的《他的國》。才子真的是才子！我想我會愛他的散文多於小說。