The only part of Little Women that struck a chord with me was Joe’s lament that ”Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any presents”. Substitute the word ‘books’ for ‘presents’ and you’d have my sentiments expressed exactly. Giving and receiving books is a fundamental part of Christmas for me, starting with the shiny new Bunty or Jackie annual I looked forward to all year when I was a very young teenager.
This year I asked Santa kindly for a few novels that are either on my Classics Club challenge or my Booker prize winners challenge. Santa must have decided I already had plenty of Classics to get on with reading so he ignored the appeal for Trollope’s Palliser novels (I can always hint again when my birthday comes around) but I did end up with a few surprises in the shape of the Barnes and Mullan collections of essays.
These are some of the books in the package:
Since I also love giving books as well as receiving, almost everyone in my immediate family was a recipient. This is what I gave away:
- Richard Burton’s diaries
- The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
- Pure by Andrew Miller (I loved this when I read it earlier this year)
- A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
- Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
- Prague Cemetery – Umberto Eco
- Restless – William Boyd
- David Copperfield – Dickens
- The Land of Painted Caves – Jean Auel
- Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
- The 100 year old man who fell out of a window – Jonas Jonasson
- Hangover Square – Patrick Hamilton
Other News
Finally got to finish Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (only taken me 2 months or more). And managed to get the review done Also read one from my Classics Club list – Muriel Spark’s Girls of Slender Means – still means I’ve only read 3 classics this year so will need to get my skates on to complete the 50 in 5 years challenge. The Spark review is here. I’m ending the year by reading C. J Sansom’s Dissolution for my book club meeting in early Jan. First time I’ve read anything by him and so far its a pleasure.
We're all friends here. Come and join the conversation