Anne of the Island.

So, I decided to cheat a little smidge and just count A Christmas Carol as one book and move on from Charles Dickens. I tried to convince myself I could like him, but I just can't. I don't like his writing style and that's that for his books. I still have A Tale of Two Cities though. I think I may still give that a chance, but the outlook is very dim in my reading future that I'll ever finish it.

So, I've moved on to L.M. Montgomery's Anne of the Island. I just adore her Anne character so much. She is everything I ever want to be. Look at these first two paragraph's:

"Harvest is ended and summer is gone," quoted Anne Shirley, gazing across
the shorn fields dreamily. She and Diana Barry had been picking apples in the
Green Gables orchard, but were now resting from their labors in a sunny corner,
where airy fleets of thistledown drifted by on the wings of a wind that was
still summer-sweet with the incense of ferns in the Haunted Wood.

But everything in the landscape around them spoke of autumn. The sea
was roaring hollowly in the distance, the fields were bare and sere, scarfed
with golden rod, the brook valley below Green Gables over-flowed with asters of
ethreal purple, and the Lake of Shining Waters was blue-blue-blue; not the
changeful blue of spring, nor the pale azure of summer, but a clear, steadfast,
serene blue, as if the water were past all moods and tenses of emotion and had
settled down to a tranquility unbroken by fickle dreams."

How could I not be swept away by that? I just find her writing so lovely-beautiful. Ever since I was a child I've longed to go to Avonlea and Green Gables and just wander and see how far my imagination could really go in such a lovely place as described there.

So, this is my last book of the year, and I am so glad I picked this one. I cannot wait to start my 50 Book Challenge next year, but first, to reach my goal of another 27 books read again for this year. I feel quite pleased with myself already.