Anne of Green Gables TO FINISH

Well, this is an epic post and I am just going to start it today.  Hopefully it will continue getting longer for many a year to come :-)   I have just had a little search for Anne on the blog and there appears to be just one mention of her on the Little About Me post.  No explanation so it is high time to come on here and record about her as she is a major part of my life!

Early Encounters With Anne
I had quite a lot of story books on tape as young person including Anne of Green Gables.  In fact I got a second copy of it as the first one got broken on one of the two cassettes.  The funny thing is I don't remember loving it all that much.  But there are many lines in the book that I can remember the exact intonation of of the person reading it so I must have listened a fair few times to.  At some point, I imagine when I was still under 10, I was given the first 4 books for my birthday. They were relatively think and had very small writing so they just sat on my shelf.  I was never that interested in reading the first one as I felt I already knew it.  Somehow, about age 14 I started reading them them all.  I feel as soon as I was on to book three there was no looking back.  I managed to then buy Anne's House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside from Northwood bookshop and loved them too.  I wept bitterly when I finished Anne of Ingleside as I didn't want the series to be over.  And then somehow I found out there were two more!!!!  Oh my, what a feeling!  I can't remember how it came about, I think there was a lot of searching, but the Chickbeans tracked them down at their library in Alderley Edge and I read those - boy what a time.  I have an image and a feeling of reading in the little front bedroom at the Chapmans on a sunny spring day.  But I think that was Anne of Ingleside as I remember the frustration of having read the back and it saying that Anne had six children and then in the book Rilla is born and that lead me to give up reading the backs of books!  I leant these books to two friends at school and used to love discussing how far they had got with them in the classroom.  Rilla of Ingleside had a huge impact on me - the tears that night and it is still my go to thought on Remembrance Day. I think it was also one of the first books I ever re-read.  They then became standard rereads over the years and I am really not sure how many times I have read Anne now - I would hazard around 5.
Interesting to me moment... I have just googled 'Anne of Green Gables cassette tape' to see if I could find a pic of our copy to include here.  No luck, but ever so bizarrely a pic of Mum's copy of Frenchman's Creek came up on page 9! And I had been thinking so of Frenchman's Creek while writing this as being one of my other favourite books and the other contender for first book I ever re-read!  So I had to go read the blog to find out why!

Visiting PEI

27th Birthday Present
For my birthday this year, John bought me a Puffins Classic version of Anne of Green Gables.   I am about to start reading it, but before I do I want to try and record some things here.  One of the most exciting bits of the book is in the end section of behind the scenes bit is 'Some Things to Think About'.  I want to try list them here and put some of my thoughts in now, then add to them when I have read.

1. Can you compare Anne Shirley to any modern-day characters?  Instict, no!  will get thinking. 
2. Marilla and Matthew wanted to adopt a boy to help them out with the farm work.  What do you think it was that made them keep Anne instead?  Matthew was capitvated by her spell of talking and seeing the world differently than anyone else he had come across and he found himself feeling comfortable with her.  And he felt her desire to belong.  Marilla was touched by Anne's lonely life story and wanted her to have a good life, that she wouldn't get with Mrs Peter Blewitt.  She thought it her duty to bring up Anne.
3. Who do you think changes most during the novel?  How and why? Marilla and Anne.
4. Why do you think Anne holds a grudge against Gilbert for so long?  She is of fiery temper and felt the shame that was inflicted on her by Gilbert's actions.
5. Aunt Josephine is immediately amused and interested in Anne.  What do you think it is that akes Anne so different from her classmates?  She talks so readily and from the heart.
6. Marilla considers herself to be Anne's main guardian, but what do you make of Matthew's role in her upbringing?  He openly shows an interest in Anne and her thoughts and shows her unconditional love. He is a very important guardian.
7. What qualities do you think Anne looks for in a 'kindred spirit'?  That's a really good one and I am not sure what to put now.  A caring person, who has romantic ideals.  hmmm, think this may have to be one I build on as I read.  It's funny as I have long thought that I would love to be a kindred spirit but have never quite thought what it would exactly include.  I just thought Anne would kinda feel it when she is with someone.  And I fear it is not something that can be learnt, you either have it or you don''t.  And as I want it so much, I fear I might not have it!