Booking through Thursday: Encore

from here:
Almost everyone can name at least one author that you would love just ONE more book from. Either because they’re dead, not being published any more, not writing more, not producing new work for whatever reason . . . or they’ve aged and aren’t writing to their old standards any more . . . For whatever reason, there just hasn’t been anything new (or worth reading) of theirs and isn’t likely to be.

If you could have just ONE more book from an author you love . . . a book that would be as good any of their best (while we’re dreaming) . . . something that would round out a series, or finish their last work, or just be something NEW . . . Who would the author be, and why? Jane Austen? Shakespeare? Laurie Colwin? Kurt Vonnegut?

My favorite book is Anne of Green Gables. It's been my favorite for almost twenty years. There's something very relatable about Lucy Maud Montgomery's writing; I think everyone's had a nosy neighbor or known a gossipy church lady or seen a romance develop from initial dislike.

As far as I know, I've read all the book and short stories she's written (though every few years, it seems, someone finds a new "secret" collection and publishes it). I've read all of them more than once, and there are several that I've read more than ten times (I like to read through Anne's series at least once a year. Yes, they're THAT GOOD).

I like the simplicity in the books, and how the characters just spend a lot of time reading or walking or talking to their neighbors. That lifestyle is totally foreign to me now, but I like the way Anne, specifically, can look at almost anything and ponder its beauty or its value for a good long while. I like her crazy imagination, since I have one myself. And I like her devotion to her family and friends, and how she feels things so deeply.

Overall, I just like the genuine GOODNESS of the books, how Anne (like Anne Frank) believes that everybody--even arch-enemy Josie Pye--must have a little bit of good in them. I think that kind of optimism is pretty scarce these days.