Old Books, New Readers discussion

I'm sorry. This month I am leaving off the poll in favor of another idea I have been cooking up. I am going to read four or five Christmas stories,

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
2. A Christmas Carol
3. The Christmas Doll
4. The Snow Queen
5. Letters from Father Christmas

Some for myself and some with my younger siblings. The idea is for each of you to put up your own book, or list of books, (New or old, Just for this one month) that you will be reading and those of us who have read them can talk about them. Maybe your list will inspire others to read some of the same books.

Please join in!

A couple of years ago I read A Christmas Carol and decided to try and read one or two Christmas themed books each December. Last year I read The Christmas Train, very good story. I also read The Christmas Wedding, decent, but not my cup of tea.

This year I have read The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, excellent little story, way shorter than I thought, but very good. I plan on rereading A Christmas Carol starting today and if time permits I am thinking about reading Old Christmas: From the Sketch Book by Washington Irving.

Great idea, Christa! I set up the main group page with a challenge for December. In the meantime, I'm going to have to go look for some books!

I'm in ! I just bought A Christmas Carol so I'm excited :)

Wow thank you Gene, that looks great.

Bob I heard The Gift of the Magi is a really good tale and was torn between it and the Snow Queen. Maybe I will get time to read both.

Today I am starting The Christmas Doll with my younger siblings. It was one of the first books I was ever given (for Christmas in fact) and I loved it even though I was never really into playing with dolls. I am hoping my 8yr sister, who loves dolls, will enjoy it as well.

Very sweet memories are connected to my current book, The Christmas Doll . My younger brothers are finding rather boring, but my sister likes it. It is a sad and sweet story. About two sisters who's parent died in a fever. They now live in a London work house and the fever has returned. In a desperate move the older sister Lucy (10) takes her younger sister Glory (6) out of the work house and onto the street. How will they fare? What part does the doll play? Will anyone be kind to two lonely girls?

I know all the answers, but will only continue to give small hints.

My reading in going well. I forgot how sad and depressing the beginning of "The Christmas Doll" is. Forgot? Or perhaps I was never really aware of it. The last time I read this book I might have been 13, and reading books about poor orphans hiding from the scary adults was pretty typical of the stuff I read at that age. This tale and the tone it is told in was in five of every six books I read and so the true sadness of the story was lost on me.

I am very eager to start listening to the A Christmas Carol . I am on hold behind about six other people. I read the book with the group two years ago and that was my first time reading the book. The other day I watched the "Muppets: A Christmas carol" and it was very funny. But I am curious to now listen to it.

With Dickens I find listening to his books I understand more than when I am reading it myself. Not sure why that is the case.

Last night I went to a lecture at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. It was about CHRISTMAS CAROL, and it was thrilling. Have a look at the tripartite structure of the work: Scrooge gets three ordinary human visitors at the beginning, which match up with his three Ghosts later on.

Really? There is an connection I never noticed. I know his Nephew came, then the charity collectors. Was the last one Christmas carolers?

No, it was Bob Cratchit. So you have Family (Ned the nephew), your Employees (Bob Cratchit), and the Poor (the two charity guys). This matches up with the Ghosts of Xmas Present (Family -- they visit Ned), Xmas Past (they visit the Fezziwigs, old Scrooge's first employer) and of course Xmas Future, in which you see all the results of poverty.

I remember so little of "A Christmas Carol" it is so strange. It is such a popular story and I am "Farmilliar" with it, but the details are lost to me right now. I hope to have it soon from the library.

While I was at the library yesterday I picked up The Snow Queen andHow the Grinch Stole Christmas! . The latter one I have read many time and it must be my favorite Dr. Suess book and probably my favorite Christmas story. I love reading it to my younger siblings and cousins around Christmas time.

I'm half way through! I got the short/easy two out of the way. Now I just need to tackle Letters from Father Christmas, which I'm really looking forward to, and The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.

The Gift of the Magi is quite the classic with the way it's been re-told in so many stories. It's shorter than I expected and well worth the read. It's easy to read in a single sitting.

I also read The Christmas Wish which was cute and had fantastic photography. The story was probably more appropriate for reading to a child and its another you can complete in a single sitting.

Ohh, The Stupidest Angel looks like it would be a very fun read, not I want to add that one to my list too.

The Littlest Angel. I loved it when mom read it to me. My kids loved it when I read it to them, and now I hope to share it with my grandkids.

Last night I started The Snow Queen . Even though it is a a small book, the print in small and in two columns on each page, so this is actually quite an extensive book.
So far I am very impressed with it, the story is deep, has a back story, and the two main children are interesting.

The back story is that the Devil created a mirror that when anything good looked in it, made the good things look twisted and bad. He decided to take the mirror up to heaven but it broke and fell into billions of pieces all over earth. The splinters would fall into peoples eyes and hearts making them unsatisfied with everything and when they saw good things they looked bad.

Now to me that is a great story right there, but it gets even better. The rest of the story is about a boy and a girl. The boy gets some glass in his eye and goes missing with the Snow Queen. Where I am now the little girl has set off to find him. I am so excited to finish it tonight.

Okay, got one book done. Read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas! yesterday, then watched the Jim Carry version of the movie. Love that story.

I get my own meaning from it, the true meaning of Christmas is Love. First God's love for us by giving us his Son, and also the love of family for each other. I love to give gifts, usually food, and it is a big part of how I show my love, so Christmas is a great holiday for me.

Have you read the Grinch? What do you think the true meaning of Christmas is? Does it come from a store, or does it...perhaps.......mean a little bit more?

Christa - Ron Paul 2016 wrote: "Ohh, The Stupidest Angel looks like it would be a very fun read, not I want to add that one to my list too."

I'm about a quarter of the way through this one and have determined that it is definitely NOT a story to read to the young ones. From an adult perspective, the wit and cynicism is funny and probably closer to something you might see on an edgier cable TV show.

I'll be sure to post a review once I finish it, which will be (hopefully) before Christmas.

Skip The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. I wouldn't really consider it a Christmas story in anything close to a traditional sense. The sex and zombies kind of throws it off track. It's definitely not a book to read to the kids.

Of the books I completed, I put Letters from Father Christmas right at the top. Get a real copy of the book if you read it because the pictures are essential.

So far I have gotten three books done. The Gift of the Magi, The Snow Queen and How the Grinch stole Christmas. I am still on hold for Letters from Father Christmas and A Christmas Carol. But the books I did read did their job and put me in the Christmas spirit.

Thank you for the review Gene, the Angle book sounds really funny, but I will read it for myself and not as a bedtime story :D


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Since this thread was sort of a free for all I am locking it up.