That’s a Wrap!
Phew! Dear reader, we have made it to the end of our first book and first series, on our maiden voyage through the Reader’s Museum! Hurrah! We’ve journeyed through the highs and lows of Anne’s new life in Avonlea: books, bosom friends, birch trees, and blunders! And we’ve been joined by scholars and specialists who’ve enriched our discussions and enlivened this book anew.
When I began the Reader’s Museum, I hoped most of all to recreate the kinds of satisfying, rich, varied, and close conversations I had with friends during school, and, to my delight, that dream has come true! As we bring this series to a close and prepare for the next one’s beginning, it’s tempting to focus solely on the next horizon, the next project, the next series - and, to be fair, those futures are exciting and full of the kinds of ambitions and challenges and triumphs that call out to Anne by the end of this novel. However, I think there is something good and valuable in pausing to celebrate achievements and milestones, both big and small. I had an absolute blast recording the wrap party episode with Emma and Kennis, and I hope you enjoy listening to it, dear reader! And after tomorrow’s episode is launched, I’ll be taking myself off for a forest bath in a nearby small town - an especially effective one because the leaves are turning and the sky is a painful, never-ending blue, and the air is spicy with the tang of autumn. What better forest bath could one ask for?
We are moving on to other books and other objects in the coming series, for which I am fidgeting with excitement, but I know I’ll be coming back to this first foray through the Reader’s Museum, to re-encounter the objects and practices and peculiarities we’ve met so far. And, similarly, Anne will always be there for us - waiting in the pages of this novel, ready to accompany us in all moments of life. I suspect that she may be walking a little way behind me in the woods tomorrow afternoon, delighting in the rich and final finery of the trees. And I think that tomorrow, perhaps more than ever, I will be of one mind with our beloved heroine: very glad to live in a world where there are Octobers!
Jennifer