The Blue Castle

[rena_librarian]

I haven't slept since 6:30 PM yesterday. (That's roughly 22 hours at this point.) I've been using this as a way to gain sympathy for having too much schoolwork, but in reality I procrastinated and reread The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery cover to cover. I totally should not have pulled it down (I was "looking something up," lol), because I literally physically cannot keep myself from doing this every time I take it off the shelf. This is why I avoid moving the books on the L.M. Montgomery shelf, and this is something like the fifth time I've read it, which means I'm pretty sure it holds the record for "chapter books" that I've reread, lol. (Two more times and I think I could declare this with absolute certainty--its only real competition is the Narnia and Tales of the Kingdom series.) I also decided:

A) Whenever I get around to actually making the Required Reading for Humanity list (as in, if you're a living human being, these are the books you really must read before you die list), The Blue Castle will be somewhere in the top five, and

B) I actually kinda want to go into writing movie scripts just to see this and A Fine and Private Place come to the silver screen properly, and

C) this is the most life-affirming book I've ever read. The heroine is so like me in so many ways and ends up happy despite it.

I mean, she's not pretty (at first) and is totally oppressed by her family (I think I would be "oppressed" that bad if I didn't just flat do things I was technically forbidden to do). Then, one day, an impetus drives her to decide that she will no longer tolerate it. (In her case, it's being told she has a year to live, in mine it was coming to realize that no one had the right to treat me the way my parents do.) So she starts doing everything she always wanted to do. Yay!

I don't want to spoil it, I want you to read it. And to make it easier, it's now in the public domain, and you can read it here thanks to Project Gutenburg. BOOYAH!

Comments

[joxerfan.livejournal.com]

"So she starts doing everything she always wanted to do. Yay!"

OK, so if this character parallels your life... what is it you're now doing? :D

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

Announced that I am not continuing college this fall (though I graduate in May, technically I have five years to go to get the degree I was planning to get), and that I am moving to Canada to be near my best friend in what I think is the most beautiful place on Earth (Halifax, Nova Scotia) at the first available opportunity, which will probably be shortly after my next birthday due to immigration laws. (Conveniently this gives me nearly a year to save up some $$$)

My family forgot that this is more or less what I always wanted to do anyway and that college was the backup plan.

Also, since my best friend's hubby is getting a new job, if I move up there she wants to take me traveling internationally, and I know my mother will flip when she hears that we've finalized travel plans--she's scared of bird flu and me getting kidnapped to be a sex slave and other outlandish stuff that's perfectly avoidable. ^_^