Jane Austen

It seems like no matter how far back you go in history, there have always been taxes when there was some sort of currency and governing body involved. The further back you go, the more interesting the taxes get. Some of the more unique taxes can be found in one of the most romantic periods of all time — the Regency era in Great Britain from 1811-1820. Here are the taxes to expect if you were living in Jane Austen's time, according to Regency researcher Nancy Mayer:

• Servants: You got taxed two pounds, eight shillings every year for every male servant you had. The more servants you had, the higher the tax.
• Window tax: This was a crafty way to tax the rich since bigger houses tend to have more windows. The tax increased the more windows there were in a home. To avoid the window tax, some sneaky homeowners bricked up their windows.
• Hair powder: People who wore hair powder had to pay a tax of about one pound a year.
• Dogs: Owning a dog would result in a tax, and the more dogs you have, the more you'd get taxed.
• Carriages: You had to pay 12 pounds a year for a four-wheeled carriage for pleasure. The more servants you had, the higher the tax. If you had two of these carriages, you got taxed 26 pounds, and if you had three, you'd be taxed 42 pounds.

If you think one pound a year is a small amount, keep in mind that the average farmer in that era made about 15 to 20 pounds a year.

Last night Gossip Girl staged a satisfying setup. All characters are headed back to New York to start the school year off on a dramatic foot, but there are a few literary and pop culture references to note first.

The conniving Juliet, whose own fate is alluded to with a literary reference in last week's episode, proves she did her sophomore lit reading when she says, "The life of Serena van der Woodsen is like the most complicated Jane Austen novel." Sure Serena's choosing between two guys a la Pride and Prejudice, but do you see anything else? If anything, the fact Juliet makes a reference proves just how carefully fixated she is on her subject.

What else? Find out below.

I probably shouldn't admit this or commit it to writing, but when I was a kid I had an imaginary friend. I knew she was fake, but I wanted her to be real. Straight out of the 19th century, we'd discuss the differences between life then and in the late 20th century. I suddenly sound like a very dull child!

Well, I think the creator of Sex and the Austen Girl and me ran in the same fictional circle. This web series features two Jane Austen readers, one woman is from present-day Los Angeles and the other is from early 19th-century England, discussing the differences between dating now and then. It sounds equally frustrating but somehow simpler then. You could always just marry your cousin then, but even that's coming back.

While we are still learning about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, one thing we do know is that she apparently reads Pride and Prejudice every year. You may not be an Austen junkie like Kagan and Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail (who read it "about 200 times"), but do you have a book you read on a yearly basis? Or maybe just a book you can't help but read over and over again? Please share!

Source: Flickr User moriza