Today marks Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birthday in 1874 and this week is LMM Week over on Coffee, Classics and Craziness. :) Here’re my answers to her great tag questions!
~ How did you first discover LMM’s books?
My first memory was watching Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea (we owned VHS copies as far back as I can remember, now replaced with dvd's :)).
~ What’s your favorite LMM book?
The Blue Castle. Emphatically. :D I love it to bits and it places among my Top Ten Favorite Stories of All Time.
~ What’s your least favorite LMM book?
Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla of Ingleside. (Dear me... that was three.)
~ Who is your favorite character in all of LMM’s works?
Barney in The Blue Castle.
~ What couple is your favorite?
Valancy and Barney Snaith.
I know... my answers here are heavily slanted, so don’t get me wrong. I’ve read a LOT of Lucy Maud including pretty much all her short stories, which include some of my very favorite couples -- TBC just tops the list in (almost) all categories. ;)
~ What is your favorite quote from LMM (either a quote from one of her books, or from her personal life)?
From Anne of Green Gables: “There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.”
~ How many LMM books have you read?
In their entirety and multiple times, the first five Anne books, Kilmeny of the Orchard, The Blue Castle, A Tangled Web, and all her short stories (in the six volumes on Gutenberg and various other anthologies: i.e. Along the Shore, Chronicles of Avonlea, Further Chronicles, At the Altar, etc). So fourteen plus!
~Which LMM book would you most like to see made into a movie?
One of her short stories, The Wooing of Bessy, would be neat as a full length film. Note: I would say The Blue Castle, but TBC almost goes too deep for that. It’s one of those few books where I really don’t think it could possibly be better than my imagination. :) (Though, of course, if someone could do it exactly right, in every minutest detail, according to my specifications... it’s always a glittering possibility. ;))
~ Have you found a kindred spirit?
My experience on that score over the years has been much like Anne’s… from thinking they were scarce to being most richly blessed. :) Each one is truly such a dear and precious friend!
~ ~ ~
Thank you Eva, this was lots of fun! And everyone, you can visit Eva’s kick-off post here to join in the party. :) I'd love to see your answers!
Tell me! What’s your favorite Montgomery?
Actually, my favorite Montgomery book is Rilla of Ingleside :) I LOVE IT. And I really really wish it were made into a movie. A good one, that is!
ReplyDeleteRosie,
Delete*coughs* Now somehow... (putting two-and-two together and what with one thing and another :)) I'd kinda figured Rilla was your favorite. ;D And a movie could be interesting!
Haha, yes, I think it is pretty apparent! :)
DeleteI too love The Blue Castle! It is so romantic! : )
ReplyDeleteSarah,
DeleteYay, so glad you love it, too!! And YES!!! :)
I've never read The Blue Castle! It sounds like I really ought to try it . . . so many people are saying it's amazing! You see, I never really realized until a few months ago that LMM had written many other books besides the Anne series. I thought she just wrote about Anne and that was all :) Apparently not!
ReplyDeleteSo far, my favorite is definitely Rilla of Ingleside :) It really moves me, inside, in ways that not too many other books have done . . . So I am very fond of it. I actually like Rilla Blythe a lot better than Anne Shirley, but don't tell anyone else I said so ;)
jessica,
DeleteDear me, yes, she wrote a lot and oh, the delights in store for you! YES!!! You should try The Blue Castle! :D I have a couple reservations about it (i.e. I don't think Montgomery has enough emphasis in it on the church, etc., and I don't endorse absolutely everything Valancy does/the way she does it), but I DO consider it Montgomery's best/most well written work (not to mention romantic!) and it's most definitely one of my All Time Top Favorites. ;D YOU SHOULD READ IT!!!
*whisper* Anne actually isn't one of my tip-top heroines either, but I always feel badly saying so. I don't remotely dislike her and, all in all, I love her quite well. I just never tend to think of her on my list of heroines. :P Mostly, I think it's really just because she's so very familiar. :)
I'll have to try it over Christmas break (which, THANK MERCIFUL HEAVENS, is only one week away!!!)
DeleteI wouldn't exactly say I "dislike" Anne--I do think she's a cool person, objectively speaking, and I can see why so many readers love her--but personally, she just gets on my nerves a little bit. We "clash," I guess. I just have such a hard time understanding why she takes sooooooooooo long to make up her mind about Gilbert . . . that's just not "me." Also, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Anne is such a definite extrovert and I'm a pretty solid introvert.
Lovely post! I haven't read Anne of Green Gables in a long while, so I may have to go back and reread them to see which one is my favorite. :p ;)
ReplyDeleteSarah (R),
DeleteMany thanks, my friend, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!!! It's so hard to choose on Anne sometimes, but when it comes to the books (personally) I really love Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars. :)
Thanks for doing the tag! :) It's always fun to read people's differing viewpoints on Montgomery and her books.
ReplyDeleteI loooove The Blue Castle. But- *gasp* You don't like Rilla of Ingleside??? Wow. That's one of my favorite Montgomery books. :)
Eva,
DeleteYou're welcome and thank you for hosting! I loved all your questions. :)
And so happy to find another TBC lover!! Hee. On Rilla... yes, I know. ;P I haven't read it in quite a while, though, so one never knows. :)
SO when you said our answers were eerily similar, what you actually meant was, "We sound like we're the same person." We even have some of the same least-favorites! Whew. I was starting to feel really lonely in the "I'm sorry, but I don't love Rilla of Ingleside camp."
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right that TBC could be ruined if it was a movie. Clearly you and I must make this so it is perfect. Now one of us just needs to acquire a rich, unknown uncle in Madeira who dies and leaves us a fortune...
Hamlette,
DeleteOkay, you totally have me grinning. ;D That was rather going through my head. And yes! I was feeling a bit lonely in the Rilla camp, too, but decided to just be brave and come out with it.
And the movie... I'm TOTALLY up for making it anytime you are! ;D And yes, quite. Or maybe some millionaire will just run across our blog circle here and notice all the... um... budding genius(?) and see TBC's amazing potential. :)
Barney!!!!!! Do you remember one of our first conversations? It was about Barney. :-P Hahaha. :-)
ReplyDeleteNaomi!
DeleteY-E-S!!! And yay! You remember, too! :D I actually think of it often as you were the very first TBC compatriot I ever met. Still absolutely thrilling.
And why look, here we are again.... :)
("Ever dream of ballooning?" ;D)
EVER DREAM OF BALLOONING. :-D Yessss. :-)
DeleteI never actually heard of The Blue Castle until this tag started going around. I'm going to have to look it up. :)
ReplyDeleteNice post, Heidi. The pictures you included are gorgeous!
~Miss March
Miss March,
DeleteYou should!!! :) And I was so happy to get your comment... ;) Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Great answers, Heidi!
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing of the brilliance of The Blue Castle, I really need to read that book don't I?
Rose,
DeleteThank you! *teasing* yes, you DO. ;) I hope you enjoy it! :)
Heehee. As for me, we STILL own the VHS copies of AoGG and the sequel. Actually, to tell the truth, at least half of our movie collection is on VHS (they're so cheap at garage sales and thrift stores!). I told that to my friend once and she was shocked. haha
ReplyDeleteWait. What. Heidi!!!! You don't like Rilla of Ingleside? Why, dear child??
I really am rather shocked.
I love all the photos you included! They are so glitteringly lovely and Christmas-y. :)
Natalie,
DeleteHee! VERY funny, m'dear. Indeed. ;D Yes, we didn't have a super large collection of VHS tapes, but it was kind of an epoch when we finished "replacing" all of them. :) And I LOVE finding deals, too! Such a thrill. ;)
I'm SOOOO sorry about Rilla, dear. Really!!!! PLEASE don't be offended!!! Okay, to make a (very) long story somewhat short: way back when -- when I first read all the Anne books in chronological order -- the characters and style in the last three books just didn't click for me. Part of it is generation spanning series don't tend to be my favorites anyway (for many and various reasons, which could be an entire blog post unto itself ;P). And... with Rilla I just couldn't forgive her for killing off Walter, it affected me in a rather huge way -- and still does. So that's one of the biggies. :-/ PLEASE don't be offended!!
And thank you! I had a lot of fun and I'm so glad you like them!! ;)
Oh dear, hahaha, no please don't worry I'm not offended or anything!
DeleteI can understand about Walter...his really is one of the most heartbreaking deaths I've ever read. :(
So, yes. I personally love Rilla but I don't mind if you don't feel the same. :)
I read Blue Castle after reading about it on blogs; I am so glad I did. I have to agree on the movie part though, I think a movie cannot properly do justice to all the emotions in the story.
ReplyDeleteLivia Rachelle,
DeleteI'm so happy you enjoy TBC, too! :D Yes, a movie would be tough. (The idea of writing a script is pretty intriguing, though. Maybe someday.... ;))