Every year.

I’m fairly certain I’ve read the whole Anne of Green Gables series at least once every year.

Always in the springtime, around April or so, I start to crave these books. Scenes or lines from the books will just pop into my head and will really drive me to re-read the series again.

This year, I ended up reading them more in late spring/early summer (because they were packed away and we couldn’t find them until we moved). I borrowed the books from Maggie to tide me over until we found my set.

[Note: I actually have 2 sets of this series. The set pictured above from my childhood, and a 2nd set I got a few years ago to read so the old ones stay in tact. I have a sentimental tie to the published covers/type of this older version of books and want to keep them forever.]

Long long ago when my grandmother lived with us in Southern California, she one time bought me a book that she thought I would like – the 4th book of this series.

And that started it all….

When I was growing up, I genuinely wanted to be Anne Shirley and Scarlet O’Hara (my 2 favorite fictional heroines).

But that is a post for another day.

From knowing these books so well, and having read them for almost my entire life … there’s some things that are unchanging every time I read them.

Ex: I KNOW that I will always cry at the end of book 3 and the end of book 8. And sometimes at the end of book 1 and partway through book 5. I just know it will happen. I recently finished book 8 and made sure to read it not-at-work since I knew the tears were coming …

Reading these books always make me want to be a REAL homemaker – quilting, baking every day, canning and making my own clothes. I should post about all the baking I did as a kid – probably as a direct result of reading these books all the time.

Reading these books makes me want to name our house (a la Hann Manor or Ingleside).

Also…

Book cover of #3 – Anne of the Island -

Doesn’t the artist know that redheads can’t wear pink? Anne talks about it so many times throughout the series …

That has always bothered me.

I like – but don’t love – the movie versions of the books. The movie/mini-series is just TOO different from the books for me. But I very much love Megan Follows and I think she was the perfect casting for Anne.

Book 4 – Anne of Windy Poplars -

The book pictured below is actually Maggie’s copy. I loaned my copy to someone and never got it back …. and it breaks my heart because my childhood set is no longer complete.

So, this is my plea -

If you ever (ever) see this book, this cover, this edition in a used bookstore – please please buy it for me. I’ve been looking because you can’t buy this edition new.

Breaks my heart even more since Anne of Windy Poplars was the first book of the series I ever read …

For some reason I decided to color on the cover of this book – #5, Anne’s House of Dreams, one of my faves of the series. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I wanted Anne to be in a pink dress like on the cover of book 3? But the book has been this way for so long, I only barely remember what it looked like before …

I know not everyone re-reads a book, or re-watches a movie. …. but I do, and I love that I know these books inside and out. It may sound incredible, but I really do see something new each time I read the series.

I’m going to tell you something else that may sound incredible – and I don’t know how to word it exactly so it doesn’t sound both bizarre and a little self-important:

I feel like a lot of what I have learned about life I learned from these books.

Truly. Take that how you will, but I think L.M. Montgomery was very wise and really used these books to guide little girls to be the best people they can be. …

Anne is not perfect, but she is earnest and she learns along the way about herself, about other people and how to live and love.

and finally ….

As I was re-reading these books this time around … I realized that I actually remember the placement of certain lines on the page. That is how many times I’ve read them. Or, once when Andrew read the books, he told me the general plot of the part he was reading, and I could recite for him what one of the characters says there.

ex: one of my favorite lines, 1/2 way down the page:

“Which would you rather be if you had the choice — divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?”

Or this chapter from the first book …. Just the first page of the chapter I can picture in my mind’s eye …. with that V above the short title …

Don’t forget, I wrote my Master’s Thesis on memory and material culture … these are the kind of things I think about. …

One of the lovely touches in the books that make Anne Anne. One of her delightful thoughts that made me want to be just like Anne Shirley:

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”

So, there you have it.

One of my favorite things in life is this 8-book series, written in the early 20th century for young/teenage girls.

And Andrew loves them (especially the first book).

want to read more?

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