Well I guess I am just bitter and twisted (NOT from being single
) but because after I defended Miss Austen in a seminar (ie tore apart some hapless males, chewed them up and spat them out (oh maybe THAT's why I'm single
) my most brilliant and inspirational lecturer stopped me at the end of the class and told me that I should consider doing Austen for my dissertation and that if so she would like to supervise... and, heart breaking, I had to say that I was required to choose from French lit only and so ended up being supervised by Dr Sleazy Dwarf ..
However to get back on topic... it would be interesting to see the gender split per book - I wonder if Austen is an author guys pretend to have read to impress girls, whether Tolkien is one that girls read to grab themselves a geek :S
So Lal ... you won't be making a pilgrimage to Chawton when you descend to the infernal southern regions for Oxonmoot?