Holiday Reading

Inspired by a post at Compulsive Overreader, I've been re-reading Anne of the Island.  And loving it all over again.  I haven't read it in years . . . and it does make for such lovely holiday reading.  The use of dialect, the overblown descriptions, the humour!  Montgomery sure knew what she was doing.  And I've long admired how she sneaks little bits of subversive theology into her Anne narratives.


Here's a quote from the unquenchable Mrs. Rachel Lynde:  "Such candidates as they have sent us, and such stuff they preach!  Half of it ain't true, and, what's worse, it ain't sound doctrine. The one we have now is the worst of the lot. He mostly takes a text and preaches about something else. And he says he doesn't believe all the heathen will be eternally lost.  The idea! If they won't all the money we've been giving to Foreign Missions will be clean wasted, that's what!  Last Sunday night he announced that next Sunday he'd preach on the axe-head that swam.  I think he'd better confine himself to the Bible and leave sensational subjects alone.  Things have come to a pretty pass if a minister can't find enough in Holy Writ to preach about, that's what."  


Oh, the irony that spews forth from Mrs. Rachel Lynde.  I don't know which part is more chuckle-worthy, the bit about unsound doctrine being worse or the confusion over what is/isn't in the Bible (the story of the floating axe-head was one of my favs as a youngster).  When a child, I loved to hate Mrs. Lynde. As an adult, I admire what Montgomery does with this lovably unlikeable character who rings so true to life.


I'm also indulging in more Holmes.  I've begun The Valley of Fear this week.  And Mr. Inkslinger and I braved yesterday's snowstorm-like event to pick up some books at the book store (you know you're a book addict when . . . :).  He purchased a very nice edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and I picked up a copy of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger.  I've been wanting to get my eyes on that novel for some time now.  And of course there is always that stack of books Mr. Inkslinger and I accumulated on Christmas Day! Good reading ahead!