Every year (EVERY year) for the last 20 or so, I’ve been reading the entire 8 book series of Anne of Green Gables.

Usually in the springtime or early summer. 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.

There’s something about the change in the weather this time of year that REALLY makes me want to go to Avonlea. (sidenote: Andrew and I have a ‘someday’ dream of buying a summer home on Prince Edward Island….love!)

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I learned that Prince Edward Island is a REAL PLACE!

You should know, though, it’s the BOOKS primarily that I love.

I bet a lot of you have seen the TV movies (Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea) …. I do LOVE the casting of those movies, and I have a pretty serious girl-crush on Megan Follows. ….

…. but it’s the books – the plots and characters in the BOOKS – that really have my heart.

(sidenote: re: TV movies. It’s always fun to discover what men of your acquaintance have seen the movies. Few will admit to watching them on their own – most guys claim “I was home sick and my sister/mom made me watch them.” Even fewer guys will admit to liking these movies. So, you can imagine my joy when I got my husband to read the books! Not only did he read them – he LOVES them! He loves Anne – he laughed and cried at all the right places when he read it, and he’s getting ready to read the series a second time. Just one more reason Andrew and I are BFF   )

(sidenote#2: as I was typing this, I told Andrew I was blogging about Anne and he said,”I love Anne. I’m glad you introduced me to her. I don’t know what I’d do without her.” hahah!)

I started reading the books in 1st or 2nd grade, I think, and all throughout my childhood I wanted to be Anne Shirley.

I wanted her red hair, and her way of winning people over, and her sincerity and her appreciation of everything.

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 (like Green Gables or Ingleside).

[Note: I actually have 2 sets of this series. The set pictured below 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. Soon, I think, I want to blog about our emotional attachment to objects, and why we should journal that]

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.

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.”

re-reading Anne of Green Gables plants a seed of inspiration to:

• wear dresses
• bake
• garden (food and flowers)
• let my imagination run wild
• sew/(learn how to) quilt
• find a name for our home (right now, we’re calling it ‘Headquarters’)
• write
• dream
• learn how to knit
• live next door to my best friend so we can come up with some kind of light-flashing signal