I've been reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books lately....I like the writing a lot, but for some reason, I'm not getting fully into it....as a series, it's no Anne of Green Gables, by far. I rediscovered those books in boxes while moving, and I think I might just reread those for the hundredth time. I always thought Anne Shirley was so great, even though she was way too into poetry. I wanted to look like her growing up, really really wanted to have red hair and gray eyes and freckles. The part where Matthew dies always made me cry.
What's weird is that in the later books, after Anne and Gilbert are married, she just stays home and has lots of babies, despite being a really talented writer and winning all sorts of awards. And being a mother is really important and fulfilling etc etc, but I mean, the last 3 books become all about her children's adventures and domestic duties, which is disappointing.
I just read the synopsis of the last Anne of Green Gables movie, which has her having adventures in New York, while Gilbert goes fight in WWI instead of staying on Prince Edward Island. (First, dork that I am: the chronology is all wrong - hellooooo, the war happened when her children had grown, and two of them went to war, not Gilbert... ) ANYhow, I can see how the producers were like, what the hell...how do we make the fact that she settles down and has lots of babies more interesting? Oh, that's right, send her to work in a big publishing house in New York, imprison her husband in a German POW camp, craft intrigues in which past beaux work undercover, put her in mortal danger.... whereas really, she just lived in the country and had lots of babies and continued to quote poetry too often. But, I love these books, and still think red hair is the prettiest.
