Summer has always always meant books, and that is almost all it has meant since the very moment I sat on the porch and read the word "island" aloud from my brown primer and learned how it was pronounced and was hooked. For some reason this summer feels especially Anne of Green Gables to me, and all I want to do is plop down with Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside and think about the Pied Piper and the War Effort and weep. (Except this time there will be no grown-ups around to say "You Cannot Take These Things So Seriously They Are Only Books.)
And so it is not that I am taking a break from blogging so much as that I am reading and thinking about the things I am reading and that though I am writing, I am not writing the kinds of things I like to blog and the rest of the time there aren't a lot of words. But there is distilling, and there is rain, and a few lovely plants have appeared on my windowsill, and I've been thinking a lot about boats. Books and boats. And tiny copper bells.
{Photo from Jennifer Zwick, via even*cleveland. I am sorry to be a copier, Stephanie, but it was too, too beautiful.}
12 maids a-milking:
One of the few classic children's books I never read. Given that I read a book a day until boys found me that was a lot. Is it too late do you think?
Is it wrong that Anne of Green Gables makes me sob in most unattractive ways? That in Little Woman can almost no longer be read, too much of the reading is given over to crying. Alice McDermott is sob-able for grown ups but not very grown-up grown ups.
(and writing of the non-blogging kind makes me feel squiggly and better than blogging kind so good on you)
God. You know, I think about Rilla (well really, I just think about Walter) all the time. ALL the time.
What grown ups told you that? Phsaw. Not grown ups I would like to be. I sobbed over Rilla, and of Mice and Men, and Night (my parents did not edit my reading), and Emily of New Moon, and Little Women... probably all in the same summer.
This summer it's been Kavalier and Clay. Have you read yet? You MUST.
LPC,
No. But if you haven't read all of the Anne of Green Gables, you'll really want to start at the beginning, not the end.
It makes me so happy that you love this photo.
My copy of Rilla of Ingleside has practically been read to bits ... one of my favorite parts about re-reading it is seeing the passages my twelve year old self underlined again and again.
LPC - never too late for Anne. Or Emily. Or Jane of Lantern Hill. But do start at the beginning.
Oh, LPC. I second the others: READ Anne. As soon as you can. Start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)
Hannah: It is not wrong. I myself become a ball of puddly snot. I will tell you that I hadn't read Little Women until two winters ago and was inconsolable for days.
Meg: I missed Emily of New Moon, somehow. I shall correct it straightaway. I've been thinking about Walter so often lately. I keep *trying* to read K+C, but for some reason I never get very far. One day.
S: Yes!
Meg- I agree, Kavalier and Clay is wonderful.
LPC- it is never, never too late to read Anne. But sometimes it is essential to re-read it when I feel I've become too cynical. Anne provides a much needed balance to my sarcastic nature. She finds beauty in the small things, gives me hope and reminds me that kindred spirits are so very important.
Happy reading Amanda!
Speaking of reading, and my does that sound odd, I finished the short stories of E. Nesbit this week and thought of you. If timing permits, please attach yourself to 'Nine Unlikely Tales for Children'
They are elegant, beautiful, surprisingly simple, very thought provocking and whimsickal (I didn't want to look up the correct spelling, I think it looks better that way!) but what else would you expect, they are only fairy stories.
OK. I've read Kavalier and Clay. But I will take this lovely summer to read Anne of Green Gables. From the beginning. I believe in most things it's best to start at the beginning.
Manda,
I couldn't get into K&C for forever. It was the bain of David's exsistance, because he wanted me to read it so much and I was making no progress for MONTHS. But you have to read it. You will love it and it will give you dreams. It's phenominal. So, there you go, marching orders.
xo
Meg
PS
LPC, you are in for such a treat.
Rainbow Valley! Rilla of Ingleside! Rilla of Ingleside makes me cry almost as much as the end of Anne of Green Gables.
Have you read The Blue Castle? Totally treacle, no doubt, but I remember that book making me swoon when I was 12.
I am in love with reading too. Oh it brings me such joy, and takes me so far away. I dig that. : )
This photo is sheer- bliss~
You have a lovely blog.
: )
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