While She Knits - Whatcha Been Reading?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately. How about you?

Have you read something recently that you'd like to recommend to others? Tell us about it.

Comments

Re: "I am in the depths of despair."

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

My loyalty is to the 8 books :). But Megan is amazing for the first one, though the second and third drift the character away from the character I loved. Too much ridiculous fake love interest stuff.

The "dark and gritty" seems to be what happens when an EMMY WINNING WRITER wants to do a kids book.

Re: "I am in the depths of despair."

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read the books. I grew up watching the Megan Follows series and have yet to see an adaption that comes even close. In my mind it'll always be a classic. :)

Re: "I am in the depths of despair."

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I also grew up with them - I think possibly before I even read the books, when I was 8 (I believe I read the books when I was 9 or 10). So much so that the "Matthew buys puffed sleeves" scene is more firmly in my head from the film than the book (though I do KNOW the difference). However, the books have a richer wisdom and more nuanced understanding of the religious, philosophical, and mortal nature of life at the time - understandably so. There's a lot of misery and death in the books that the series, for all its emphasis on Anne's suffering before she got to Green Gables, kind of elides because it's so focused on the Anne/Gilbert romance.

I haven't seen the new tv movies with Martin Sheen as Matthew, so I've really only seen the Megan Follows version, and listened to the radio drama. I'm in the middle of the 1975 Anne of Avonlea BBC adaptation, which I am quite enjoying because it's much more faithful to the humor of the book than the 1980s Anne of Avonlea.

tl,dr: Megan Follows is my favorite Anne, but the writing for the series was always a bit flawed, and got significantly worse every series. :)