Anne of Green Gables by L.M. (Lucy Maude) Montgomery

Timeless Book, Short-Lived Bookstore?

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery is a sweet story of an eleven-year-old orphan girl who is adopted by a middle-aged spinster and her brother on Prince Edward Island.  Matthew Cuthbert is in his sixties and together with his sister, Marilla, they decide to adopt a boy to help on the farm.  The orphanage mistakenly sends Anne instead.  Anne is a happy-go-lucky, red-headed little girl who likes to talk—a lot.  Matthew, the shy and quiet type, takes an instant liking to Anne and asks Marilla if they can keep her.  But Marilla is a little more strict and unyielding than Matthew and declares that Anne must be sent back.  At the agency, the newly available orphan is almost instantly snapped up by a “shrewish-faced woman” who’s looking for some free slave labor. Fortunately, Marilla shows a softer side and just can’t put poor Anne in that situation.

So Anne finds a home on their bucolic farm and slowly, sometimes painfully works her way fully into Marilla’s heart.  Anne, being a curious and spirited girl gets herself into a few pickles here and there.  She unintentionally gets her friend drunk on what she thought was a non-alcoholic raspberry cordial.  She accidentally dyes her hair green. She borrows Marilla’s amethyst brooch without permission and loses it. And she smashes a writing slate on a boy’s head when he makes fun of her red hair. We follow Anne through friendships, through life lessons, and triumphs. Written in 1908, I think this warm and fuzzy classic is fun for all ages. 

My copy of Anne of Green Gables is a beautiful hardback Reader’s Digest edition.  Like the majority of my books, it is used.  I get books at a library bookstore, thrift stores, online, and my mostly at a wonderful local used bookstore called Browsers Uncommon Books. This store is crammed full of books. The overstuffed shelves are sagging and there are piles of books lining the floor.  Personally, I’m a very organized person and I would never have piles like this in my own home. Oh, sure I have my stacks of books.  But they’re neat, tidy, organized stacks, biggest to littlest, all facing the same way. In this store, however, the books are haplessly stacked here and there in temporary piles that never seem to move. And in this store, it feels very right. Somehow it’s energizing to walk past all those books, to have to scoot piles aside to see what’s behind them. It’s like a treasure hunt.  And I’ve found numerous treasures here. 

My husband read an article the other day about a town that lost its only remaining bookstore.  Of course this is because it’s so easy to buy books online or download them to a reader. But I kept thinking, what a shame!  What a tragedy it would be to lose my beloved store.  It’s a place I can come and browse. I can flip through books, see what they’re about, see what condition they are in.  I’ve found many interesting books that I just pulled right off the shelf—unknown, “unrecommended” books that I loved.  Of course, used books are much cheaper than new ones, and buying at a store saves on shipping, too.  I encourage everyone to check out their local bookstores.  Make it a point to go there.  If you don’t, you may be sorry once they’re all gone.   

The Well-Read Moose

There's new bookstore in town!  The Well-Read Moose
carries a large selection of new books and also has a coffee and wine bar allowing you to sip in leisure while you browse the shelves.  What fun! 

Happy reading,

Annette