Jane Austen/Other Book Recommendations?

Um, I’m want­i­ng some­thing to read, and the libraries are being very slow about ful­fill­ing my hold requests, so I’m look­ing for old stuff that’s good and prob­a­bly on the library shelf just wait­ing to be loved. I think I might try some Jane Austen, as I recent­ly real­ized that I nev­er have, but the excerpts I’ve seen are wit­ti­er than I expect­ed. I’m not fond of romances or “chick lit” or such things, which is where I’ve place her books.¹

If I’m going to try them, where should I start? Any oth­er authors/books you think I should try?

I don’t care to read doom-filled, depress­ing sto­ries. There’s enough of that in the real world, and I can always go look at the news. I want to read about smart, like­able peo­ple doing inter­est­ing things while ban­ter­ing wit­ti­ly. Humor is impor­tant, but goofy slap­stick non­sense loos­es me. I HATE HATE HATE “do some­thing obvi­ous­ly stu­pid, try to get out of the result­ing mess” plots. 

I’ve read Lois McMas­ter Bujold, thanks 🙂 Well, all the Vorkosi­gan uni­verse stuff, any­way. Her fan­ta­sy books have nev­er inter­est­ed me, for some odd reason.

Thank you 🙂