I have never in my life so greatly enjoyed a novel from start to finish. To be completely honest, I did not believe it to be possible. And yet. Anne of Green Gables was our pick for Canada for our Read Around the World bookclub. I say "our", but it was really Meenakshi's pick since she'd watched and greatly enjoyed the show before it was cancelled. I had my doubts as it is not my usual cup of tea (read: devastation historical fiction novels typically set during wars), but I had to give it a fair shot as it was on our reading list. 

My first time attempting to purchase it, I accidentally bought a children's picture book. My second time, I received a Western novel 😭 and the third did not result in any purchase at all as it merely sat in my World of Books cart for weeks on end. In the end I checked it out from the library using one of my many library cards (if three can be considered many). I was entirely unprepared for how quickly I would fall for Anne and the novel as a whole.

Have you ever cried tears of happiness? Would you like to? The experience of reading this was the most wonderful dream, one from which I never wished to wake. I have never felt so certain of something being "made with love" as I have with this novel. You felt it in every word, every line, every page. No language in the world has the means to express the sheer degree of fondness I have towards this lovely story. 

It is not just the characters that are beautiful and charming but the sentences themselves. I would not describe L. M. Montgomery's writing to be flowery, and she certainly is not a practitioner of purple prose, and yet. And yet. The descriptions of nature come straight out of a fairytale. I can best describe it as images painted from memory in that she has someone accomplished translating childhood visions rose-tinted with nostalgia into words. 

I had never read Anne of Green Gables. In fact, I knew nothing of the story except that she had red hair. Still, reading this novel for the first time gave me a wistful sense of nostalgia that I have yet to shake upon finishing it. I felt as though I caught a golden glimpse of a childhood that could have been mine. I cried out of love for a girl who wanted so badly to be loved by the world, and I cried out of love for the girl who still has such great love for the world.

A well-deserved shout-out to whoever put together the playlist I listened to while reading Anne of Green Gables. I loved it almost as much as the novel itself, which is saying something. It definitely added to the reading experience and I wouldn't have changed it for the world.