It can be surprising to no one that I'm a voracious reader. As a kid, I was notorious for preferring to read rather than play outside, clean, practice the piano (sometimes I did both), or watch t.v. In school I won those awards for reading the most books, and was one of those kids who was so far ahead of my reading level that I had to have "special classes." Yes, I was one of those kids. I remember skipping over the books recommended for my age group and reading Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. I know I skipped many of the "classics" of girlhood, like the Narnia books, the L'Engle books, and thankfully ALL of the Sweet Valley High crap, before I jumped into Sci-Fi/fantasy with Pern and Valdemar.*One of the series that I very glad I didn't miss was the L.M. Montgomery classics, especially the Anne books ("Ann with an E," thank you very much). Part of the appeal had to be the release of the K. Sullivan television adaptations with Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie (who will always be Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe to me.) The rest of the appeal is that they were good books. A whole shelf in my personal library is now dedicated to just my L.M. Montgomery collection.
Can you believe that Anne of Green Gables was written 100 years ago? There are huge celebrations this year on Prince Edward Island. I am totally annoyed at myself that I didn't make it there in time for the festivities. One day I will cross the visit to PEI off my "bucket list" and I can say that I visited the home of that Anne-girl.
Nova Scotia, watch out.
* One notable teenlit exception that I'm glad I didn't skip were some of the books by E.E.White, aka Ellen Emerson White, particularly the books about Meg, the daughter of the first female President. I was FRAKKING ecstatic when the long overdue sequel, Long May She Reign, was released last year. Not only was it worth the decades!-long wait, I was delighted that the writing style and 600+ pages more than satisfies my now-adult tastes. Plus, Ms. White is a Battlestar Galactica fan. How totally excellent! (Am I gushing too much like a fangirl or what!?)
