Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time. I'd put Agnes Grey second; it's just so ahead of its time. I've stopped and started Wuthering Heights on several occasions at this point, sigh.

If you're a Bronte fan I highly recommend the Juliet Barker biography of them; it's long but full of amazing detail.

I love Kristin Lavransdatter so much.

All reading is reading. Fanfiction counts (and I too have read fanfictions that put published books to shame). Reading tastes shift over time and your reading life will almost certainly evolve and look different. And reading what brings you actual joy is the point. If reading fanfiction is enjoyable for you, don't stop.

If you still want to try to read traditional books more, I'd suggest the following:

1. A time goal per day. As little as 10 minutes in bed with a physical book before you pick up your phone might be enough to hook you. I find time goals easiest to stick to because then I'm not skimming absently through pages to reach a page count goal so I can turn to the thing I'm more excited about.

2. Experiment with alternate formats - audiobooks, physical library copies, Libby/Kindle/etc. Change it up if it's not working. Some books have been great for me on audio and boring AF in print or vice versa.

Yes - your memory is better than mine! Also a significant change to the story.

I finished this one, but you're right, the execution didn't live up to the concept. Shame.

I love food and writing, so you'd think I would love food writing (and I'm all over r/suggestmeabook when people want foodie memoirs).

The pioneer of the genre in America is often considered to be M. F. K. Fisher. The Art of Eating nearly put me in a boredom coma. I really wanted to be that person, but none of it made any sense to me.

(Edit: is this a good place to brag that I loathe Vanity Fair, but have finished it twice to make sure? I read it at 15 for a book report, thought it was terrible, and tried again in my 20s to make sure I hadn't missed something. I hadn't.)

There is pretty much one scenario in which I will buy a book without reading it first, and that is if I go to a bookstore to have a browse and it catches my eye. (And I usually end up reading the first bit standing in the store, so if it's hooked me I'll buy it.)

Otherwise, I buy books if I already love the author (though this doesn't happen often aside from cookbooks) or if I borrowed it and loved it. I have a "love it enough to buy it" tag in Goodreads.

It's been a minute since I've seen it, but the Lily James/Armie Hammer Rebecca doesn't depict their post-Manderley life nearly as bleakly as the book does, and I think that's important. >! Rebecca wins in the book. That needs to be shown. !<

Oh my God, I haven't even seen this and I'm enraged.

Still mad about it.

This would not constitute a small town like the one where I grew up, but it resembles small towns I've been to in other parts of the country.

The thing that breaks my immersion most is when authors use "okay" in, like, Tudor England. NO.

Try Broward County in Florida.

Hey, I used to live in ND!

Try Broward County in FL. 😊