What Are You Reading

[Mrs. Merl]

I love the show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!" Guy is great! I want to get that book too! How fun!

[Wally_Hood]

May I pose a question here, that may not quite fit in? Do any of the FL readers have Christmas books they go back to every year? There are lot of favorite movies for Christmas, but are there some books that you like to re-read come Christmas?

I just ordered Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter, by Edward Streeter, from amazon, having read it a couple of years ago. It's just starting to become an annual event for me.

I also pull out Peter Spier's Christmas! to sort of kick off the season.

When the kids were little, at some point I would go to the Gospel of Matthew and read them the events surrounding the visit of the Magi, and speculate on what that must have been like.

Any recommendations?

[RebeccaDoll]

I'm doing the whole Harry Potter series at the moment. Currently on the fifth book

Excellent choice, I just re-read the whole series for about the 4th time, and I may or may not be making an HP quilt to my friends horror and delight...

["Skeet" McD]

May I pose a question here, that may not quite fit in? Do any of the FL readers have Christmas books they go back to every year? There are lot of favorite movies for Christmas, but are there some books that you like to re-read come Christmas?...When the kids were little, at some point I would go to the Gospel of Matthew and read them the events surrounding the visit of the Magi, and speculate on what that must have been like.

Any recommendations?

Dear Wally,
Well....let's start at the start! You can't beat the Bible. I speak as a believing Christian...but whether you are or not, the simple fact is--even though our society is trying to deep-six it as much as possible--Christmas IS a Christian holiday; to have any appreciation of it on a cultural/historical level, never mind religious....you need to know "why?" And, believer or non-believer: the Bible is one of the major, if not the most, important foundation stone for western civilization. If you don't know and understand it....you will have a hard time understanding what's been going on in the West for the past 2,000 years. But, on to...."lighter reading"!

I never fail to read A CHRISTMAS CAROL, in a facsimile of the first edition I picked up years ago. There's a reason this book has survived (and I don't like much Dickens, to tell you the truth!): and, as usual, it's MUCH better than any of the film/stage adaptations, however good some of them have been.

And there's a reason OLD CHRISTMAS from Washington Irving's SKETCHBOOK hasn't been forgotten, as well: I grew up just across the Headless Horseman's bridge from Sleepy Hollow, so this is a bit of childhood for me, as well as a great read. I always use the facsimile of a lovely 1880s giftbook edition put out by Sleepy Hollow Restorations:
http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780912882307

I always read Truman Capote's A CHRISTMAS MEMORY; a strange man for sure...but a great writer. ISBN 66-21461

Then there's Dylan Thomas' A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN WALES. Short, sweet, complex and simple....and one to read aloud, if you can manage a decent Welsh accENT....I use a slim volume with lovely woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg:
http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780811213080

Last--but for me, certainly not least!--comes a book I have been reading every year just about all my life; it was given to me on my 5th birthday (December 22, 1958)....and still bears my pencilled scrawl against each story, giving a date on which to read each, from least favorite (December 1st) to most favorite (December 24th): It was collected in 1948, and therefore comes under the "Fedora Lounge Golden Age" rubric, I guess: TOLD UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE (An Umbrella Book). The selections were made by the Literature Committee of the Association for Childhood Education...and, if you read the introduction and afterword--which I highly recommend you do--you'll see what a serious undertaking this was, and how imbued with the post-war ethos the book is. It is, in my opinion, an entirely admirable and successful effort, as good today as when it was made, 61 years ago.
http://www.amazon.com/CHRISTMAS-Coll.../dp/B000VBNQUE

SPECIAL ADDENDUM:
If, by any chance, there are any German speakers reading this...there are two German books I also turn to on a yearly basis:

SAGENHAFTE WEIHNACHT: Wintergeschichten und Weihnachtsbräuche aus langst vergangenen Zeiten, selected by Gudrun Bull: DTV. Like it says: mostly a collection of 19th century short stories or Christmas excerpts from larger works. Many of these are quite forgotten....almost all are charming and very well worth reading. ISBN 3-423-20846-5

DER WEIHNACHTSBAUM: Geschichte, Gedichte, Geschichten, selected by Aleke Thuja, Verlag Bert Schlender. A slim volume which traces the history of the Christmas tree in the land which gave it to all the rest of us, well-illustrated with period engravings. Some of the stories are joyous; some are quite tragic--and, at least to me, one is immensely distasteful, although well in line with the intention of the book--a description of the attempts to have--and to destroy--some semblance of a "traditional Christmas" in an early 1970s, Year-Zero, German commune. But that's just the LAST story....
http://www.amazon.de/Weihnachtsbaum-.../dp/3880510202

Hope this list will have at least something to please you.

"Skeet"

[Carlisle Blues]

"The Adamses, 1735-1918 America's First Dynasty" Richard Brookhiser

[Fletch]

International Picture Language, written in 1936 by Dr. Otto Neurath, founder of the Institute for Visual Education.

Did you know the little "Flatman" on highway and airport signage was invented in the 1920s by a Viennese philosopher-economist and his team of graphic artists? Unless you're a graphic artist yourself, you probably didn't.

Worker; Coal; Miner; Mechanized Mining; Hand Mining


"If your baby shows signs of rickets, take it to the doctor. He can cure it."

Flatmen, Flatwomen, Flatcars, etc., originally were items on graphs and charts, not so much signs.
World Motor Vehicle Usage, 1914-1928: USA | Rest of World

Each auto = 2,500,000 motor vehicles

[pgoat]

Finishing up Oliver Twist

[carebear]

Worker; Coal; Miner; Mechanized Mining; Hand Mining

College Student
+
Communist Manifesto
=
Hippy

Walk Mechanical Dragons here

Clean up after your mechanical pets

[Darhling]

I have been reading P.G. Wodehouse non stop for the past week.. If I start to say 'what-ho' to people, that's the reason!!

[crismans]

I was on a very snooty "only high literature" track for a while, mostly early 20th century like Faulkner, Joyce, etc. I still read that type but I mix in some guilty pleasure reading now like my current book--Dark Troopers, a Star Wars zombie novel.

Two books I did read recently and greatly enjoyed was The Good German and In the Woods.