The Austen Shelf

Welcome (or welcome back) to what was formally known as Lauren Writes Austen but from now on will be known as The Austen Shelf (unless I decide to change it at some point in the future... again). Three years ago, to this day, I posted my first article about becoming a (mostly) dedicated creator to Jane Austen, her writings, and other classics.

I wanted to make this post to celebrate the past few years of my own writing, but also to ring in this new(er) era of the blog (really it's just a new title but it feels like a much bigger change for some reason).

The Past Years In Writing

Since the first article about focusing this blog on all things Austen, I've written 37 posts -not all of them are Austen or classics related posts, but most of them are. There are a lot of pieces that I've been very proud of. Three of my posts have been top stories, two of which ("THIS IS NOT WHAT JANE WANTED" and "My Most Anticipated Movie of 2022") I am extremely proud of and out of most of the things I've written I expected them to do better than other posts. BUT for the other one, "Austen's Unmarried Heroine", has been such a surprise success?! I wrote that and at most expected people to disagree with my proposition of Fanny Price being unmarried at the end of Mansfield Park. A pleasant surprise, of course.

The craziest thing, to me, is those three stories aren't even my most viewed or liked stories!

I am still a very small creator, less than 100 stories, but I am proud of how far I've come so far (and that's mostly why I am writing this post).

(Also, since I'm shamelessly self-promoing myself already, I will add there are a couple of stories recently that I wrote that I was hoping would garner some more attraction... so if you haven't read these yet... check them out? "Jane Austen Women as Laufey Songs", "THE 1995 PRIDE & PREJUDICE SUCKS!", and "Got The Post-Bridgerton Blues?").

In Other News...

So I've read all of Austen's books, written stories and articles and reviews, what's next?

One of the biggest things I want to do, perhaps by the end of the year, is to start rereading Austen's books. Mostly, I want to write reviews on the books I haven't yet written about here. I do try to reread a lot of my books, mainly ones that I love (which is all of Austen's books!), sometimes I feel bad about owning a book but only having read it once. Reread books! It's great fun!

Speaking of rereading, I have been rereading a couple of books for some special articles coming up! I've got some things cooking...

I am hoping to get through some of the other, Austen related, books I have piling up on my shelf (also maybe shelf tour? because I have a literal shelf of books dedicated to Jane Austen's books and adaptations and other things).

Finally...

I would just like to thank anyone who has read anything I've written for this blog. If you're reading this currently, thank you. Whether this is your first time seeing something by me, or whether you've read many a things by me, thank you. Thank you to anyone who has subscribed to me! I hope to continue writing things that you find interesting, entertaining, or in any way informative. I have always wanted to be a writer (of many things, although truthfully I never saw myself writing about my Austen obsession), and so getting to express some creativity and opinions on something that I love as deeply as Austen (or hate as deeply as the Brontë sisters) has been so so fulfilling.

xoxo, Lauren.