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Perfect image via the BBC

In Emma, Jane Austen writes, “I condition for nothing else; but without music, life would be a blank to me.” A musician herself, Austen was known to play anything from romantic ballads to nursery rhymes to entertain herself and her family.

But Austen’s musical influence isn’t limited to her family’s parlor. Musicians today have taken characters and themes from her novels to write book report-style raps, scat jazz-influenced love letters, and compose beautiful instrumental ballads. These musicians are naming their bands and their songs after her characters. And one’s even named their band after her.

So grab a pair of headphones and give these Austen-influenced musicians a listen. I’m sure Jane would be nodding to the beat along with you. 

​November 10-14 is National Young Readers Week, an annual event to encourage children to read! It was co-founded by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Pizza Hut! I think there is no greater incentive for anything than pizza, but the program also gets celebrities, both national and local, to read to children in order to reinforce the positive example of reading.

But back to pizza! Here are some events you can hold during National Young Readers Week to encourage young readers everywhere!

It’s officially Austen Month here at Quirk (Jane Austen Cover to Cover is almost out!), and what better way to celebrate than to revisit one of the great authoress’s beautiful novels. All month long, I’ll be reading and recapping Northanger Abbey, Austen’s love letter cum parody of the gothic novels of her day. I plan on going chapter by chapter for the next few weeks, and please consider this your cordial invitation to join in, whether that means reading along, or just commenting!

First off, my credentials: I first picked up Pride and Prejudice when I was 13 years old after being told that it was a “difficult book” and I would “probably have trouble with it.” I blew through it, fell very much in love with Austen’s sardonic style, and felt extremely pleased with myself for having proven the naysayers wrong. (Has trying to discourage a bookworm from reading ever actually worked? I’m genuinely curious.) In the following decade I read Austen’s other novels, determined that Persuasion was probably my favourite, watched pretty much every movie adaptation available, and was informed that I most closely resemble Sense and Sensibility’s Elinor Dashwood by a Which Austen Heroine are You quiz. So yeah, pretty much an expert.

Let’s get right down to it, shall we?

Want to start writing fanfiction? I’m not going to tell you what to write about, but I will break it down into six simple steps. You’ll be creating stories that feature characters you love in no time at all.

Recently, Pizza Hut announced the revival of their classic program from the 80s and 90s: Book It! A program from October through March, Pizza Hut worked with local schools to encourage children to read, in exchange for personal pizzas and other rewards. Sounds pretty much amazing, right?

And while I’m sure it will carry over for the kids of this generation, I grew curious about what sort of rewards adults would get, the adults who grew up with Book It originally. It got me thinking.

So below, here are some of the pizzas and prizes adults should get for reading adult fiction!

Pizza via Trip Advisor

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: A classic in every sense of the word. This pizza would be a pepperoni pizza cooked to crispy perfection, to complement Elizabeth Bennett’s spicy, saucy, yet dignified take downs of that stubborn, brooding Mr. Darcy. If you’re looking for a classic with a hidden twist, read Jane Eyre for a chance at cheesy crust; totally in line with hiding something at the top of the house, so to say.

Pizza via My Recipes

Moby Dick by Herman Melville: Once you’ve finished with this whale of a tale, hop on down for a cheese pizza with a topping of anchovies, to remind you of the cunning white whale you just hunted. Just because the book is a soggy, awful look at man’s obsessive nature, doesn’t mean your own pizza can’t be fun! If you read it within a week, you get a free whale blubber lamp as a bonus prize.

Pizza via Sodahead

Any Book Written by Toni Morrison: Toni Morrison is an amazing writer, one of the best in the last one hundred years of literature, and I can guarantee that every one of her books will leave you a sobbing mess. For this pizza, you get every topping you want, smothered in feel-good ranch and hot sauce, the perfect pizza to sit on your couch, wrapped in a blanket, sobbing, trying to process your feelings. If that isn’t enough, throw in a box of dessert cinnamon sticks.

Photo via My Recipes

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: Cheese. Sauce. Crust. You want more? Read a different book, kid. Hemingway is a minimalist with an attitude. Hell, you’ll be lucky to even get cheese on that pizza. Y’know what? Screw it, let’s make it a margarita pizza with sauce, bread and basil. That’s all you get. The basil is still a stretch but even Hemingway didn’t hate flavor that much.

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon: This pizza goes for Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and Ulysses by James Joyce. If you manage to finish any one of these three books, then guess what? Full pizza buffet. I won’t even stop you from getting thirds or fourths. Because getting through these massive tomes of literary achievement grants you full immunity, and total permission to raid the Pizza Hut buffet. Hell, I’ll find a cold six-pack for you somewhere, because if you finish any of these, and are still conscious, then you deserve it, cowboy.

So get out there and read, friends! Get your kids to read, your nieces and nephews, your students. Because reading is amazing and worthwhile and takes you to other worlds, where you can learn more about yourself and life at the same time.

And when you get back from those worlds, pizza awaits.

What’s not to love about that?