Happy With Myself?

Anne of Green Gables

For the millionth time, I am reading Anne. The Tillery's lent us some Madeline L'engle books (A Wrinkle in Time and several others in the series) and they were really good. I've had some great books to read in the last month, including The Thirteenth Tale which was phenominal. So when I finished Many Waters by Madeline L'engle this week, I put the book down with disappointment. The book itself was my favorite in the Wrinkle in Time companions, but I was out of books to read. Oh yes, I certainly could have gone to the Library, but somehow I always get brainfreeze at the library when picking out a new book. So I sauntered to our wellread library of books and perused my findings. We do have a series a classics that an elderly neighbor gave to us. I have been enjoying them as well, but I didn't really feel like picking up one the other day. And then my eyes roved to my beautiful copy of Anne of Green Gables that Quinn gave me a few years ago. I eagerly picked it up and sat in my favorite chaise. I have read the entire series so many times and I never get tired of them. Once I read the first one, I have to read the series in its entirety or I feel that I'm missing something. I just love when Anne and Gilbert get together. Perhaps I am flattering myself, but I feel that Anne is me. It is true that I, in fact, become her when I read the books. I remember a roommate at Florida Bible College telling me that she always knew when I was reading the books, because I started talking like her.

The movies, however, are a different thing altogether. I enjoyed the original two: Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, even though they were slightly different than the books. I felt that Megan Follows really did become Anne. And then a few years ago, they "finished" the series, if that's what you want to call it. So annoying. I didn't even bother watching them because I read the jackets and saw that it wasn't even close to the book. So I just stick with the movie in my mind and I star as red-headed Anne as she bumbles through her youth, finishes school, then Queens, then Redmond College, then as a school ma'am as she waits for her fiance, Gilbert to finish medical school. Then they marry and move to a different part of Prince Edward Island and start their family. I still cry when Anne's first child dies shortly after she's born and when her son, Walter, dies in World War I. I follow chubby Rilla Blythe, the youngest of the Blythe children, as she grows into a lovely young woman and thus ends the Anne Shirley series. Perhaps I fancy myself as one of her kindred spirits.

Well, Imust return to Anne as she accepts Josie Pye's dare to walk along the Barry's roof ridgepole to disastrous results. So long kindred spirits!