So Many Books

“For a moment Anne’s heart fluttered queerly and for the first time her eyes faltered under Gilbert’s gaze…It was as if a veil that had hung before her inner consciousness had been lifted, giving to her view a revelation…Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways… Gilbert wisely said nothing more; but in his silence he read the history of the next four years in the light of Anne’s remembered blush. Four years of earnest, happy work…and then the guerdon of a useful knowledge gained and a sweet heart won.” Anne of Avonlea

Some time ago I lost my new book momentum. I have worked for several years now to increase my library of books read, having spent most of my life re-perusing the same few treasured ones over and over. The list was growing nicely and then I settled into the Anne books as research for my next project. And new books lost all their shine. Suddenly I couldn’t remember if I even had any books on my to-be-read list. Maybe I was done with all the good books in the world and should just re-read the old ones. I even reopened the Twilight series, which kind of captivates me and only a little because I know L.M. Montgomery was one of Stephenie Meyer’s literary influences.

Thankfully, it’s summer. And with summer comes – well, tons of happy for one thing. I love summer at my house. The kids are home but highly self-entertaining. And the days seem so full of potential for accomplishing things. Plus, we start going to the library again. Before we went tonight, I opened good ol’ Goodreads and wrote down several of the books I’ve hastily added to my to-read section on there whenever I happened to read about them online or hear about them from a friend. And my library came through in a very big way. So many of them were there and available that I got three – THREE, which is insanely ambitious for me in a 2-week period.

I love the above passage from Anne of Avonlea; it’s one of my favorites, setting up the book that IS the Anne and Gilbert romance through every tragic moment until the crowning end. I can’t wait to get to that one and sink into it for the millionth time. But I’m so glad that Goodreads and my wonderful library have reminded me there are other books in the world. And I’m so glad my to-be-read pile is now three real live books just waiting to be opened.

Photo by David Paul Ohmer on Flickr of the courtyard at the Boston Public Library – the first free municipal library in the country, something I’ve been writing about for work this week, and a setting extremely inspiring for finding new books to sink into.