☆❀☆

Finished watching Rise of Phoenixes. This took me forever! Partly because it's a long series, but also because it didn't really have the qualities that might make me want to latch onto a story and devour it.

It's very pretty, and has some lovely costumes, but I didn't care about most of the characters - including one of the leads. I love Zhiwei, but I don't like Ning Yi very much (I found him varying degrees of frustrating to annoying) and when you aren't really a fan of a character who spends so much time on screen, well....

(And for the secondary characters, I pretty much only care about Nanyi. And Xin Ziyan to a degree.)

I suppose my limited exposure to cdramas probably doesn't help. Aside from this one, the only cdrama I've watched more than a couple episodes of is Nirvana in Fire, and... it's really hard to top NiF. Especially when NiF is the sort of series where I'm interested in almost all of the characters, even very minor ones.

Ah, well.

Anyway. I need a new series to watch while knitting, now that I'm finished with this one. ;) I think I'll take a break from cdramas, though. Looking at my to-watch list, the series I currently have access to are...

+ The Exorcist (season 2). The horror series that probably needs no introduction.
+ Dark. German thriller/scifi/horror (?). Don't know anything about it beyond that.
+ The Rain. Danish post-apocalyptic scifi. ...Not sure I'm in the mood for this kind of thing right now.
+ Rose of Versailles, classic vintage anime that I've been meaning to watch for ages.

So. This calls for input. ;) Very important decision, of course.

I've been having vague cravings for some Jane Austen for a while now, but I can't decide which book to pick up. Thoughts?

* Pride and Prejudice - Read this one three times already. Would happily read it a fourth.

* Sense and Sensibility - Read this once for a class. Can't remember a single thing about the plot or characters, but I do remember that I enjoyed it.

* Emma - Read this once. Didn't like it. Thought the protagonist was kind of annoying, and the plot didn't interest me. But I was really stressed out at the time, so maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

* Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park - Never read any of these, and have no idea what they're about. (Don't spoil me!)

Suggestions? :) Do you have a favourite?