Your Christmas Author

Does anyone have a particular author that for their own peculiar reasons, they regard as associated with the Christmas period?

Dickens and Stevenson tick the boxes for me. The first more obvious, the second has been forged through habitual reading especially over the holiday season.

>2 LT79: Interesting: I haven't read it, but doesn't it commence with the attacks on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, just short of Christmas? Probably irrelevant.

Well, I wouldn't call Salinger a Christmas author, but I always associate Catcher in the Rye with the winter holidays, especially after having spent a large part of my youth in NYC.

>4 HonorWulf: Love that book. Laugh out loud in parts.

Not an author so much as a genre, but I like classic weird fiction around Christmas time. Some of that may be the tradition of Christmas ghost stories, and a major factor is likely the days being their shortest and the nights their longest.

Certain crime novelists feel right for this time of year, too. I would say the works of Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and Seishi Yokomizo all gain something extra in the Winter.

>6 Shadekeep: Ghost stories for sure. Beyond the obvious Christmas carol, James' Turn of the Screw comes to mind.

>1 LesMiserables: & >8 LT79:
Yes, films do it for me "Santa Claus conquers the Martians" being my favorite!

>9 SimB: A work of transcendent brilliance, sure to be a classic for centuries to come!

>9 SimB: Our two perennial Christmas movies are a "A Christmas Story" and "Die Hard".

>4 HonorWulf: I just hope you are not a compulsive buyer of "The Catcher in the Rye :-)

>12 RogerBlake: No, I've been holding out for the Folio edition :)

I'm not Christian and don't celebrate Christmas, but The Dark Is Rising always floats to mind at this time of year. (I wish I liked the Folio illustrations better! Maybe they'll reissue it some day with new ones.)

>14 ambyrglow: We celebrate Jewish Christmas, which involves a gigantic Hanukkah Bush, light-up Reindeer and Snowmen, and a trip to the movies on Christmas Day followed by Chinese dinner. One of my favorite days of the year, especially when we get the Cognac eggnog flowing.

Laurence Sterne. Probably just because I read Tristram Shandy over a holiday break some years ago. Plus it's sort of just a fun and dare I say, jolly book.

>9 SimB: "Santa Claus conquers the Martians"

My brother and I watched that every year as kids, since syndicated UHF channels didn't have a lot to pick from back then. A good one to pair it with is Santa Claus versus The Devil.

My Christmas movie of choice now is Rare Exports.

>11 HonorWulf: Have you ever read "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp?

I've been meaning to give it a try soon.

>18 PartTimeBookAddict: No, but I now want to -- thanks for the suggestion!

Chapter 5: Dulce Domum of The Wind in the Willows, in which Ratty attempts to lift the spirits of a dejected Mole when they come across Mole's old home, cold and shut up, and then together rekindle the spirit of Christmas, complete with good food, a cheerful fire, carols and carol singers, "a last nightcap of mulled ale" and contented sleep. It's a good companion piece to Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Other Christmassy reading I enjoy:

Carol singing with Laurie Lee in Cider with Rosie.

Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales.

C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

>19 HonorWulf: I hope it's good. I'm also planning to get a copy of "Mute Witness" which was the basis for "Bullitt."

As for Christmas authors: Dylan Thomas' "Child's Christmas", Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory", L. Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa" and Hammett's "The Thin Man."

>20 boldface: I's hard to beat listening to Dylan Thomas reading A Child's Christmas in Wales. Wonderful melodious voice.

I realize that "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" maybe not on everyone's Christmas list, but Folio did a collection of musings from those far from home at this time of year. "A Traveller's Christmas". I'll probably take a dip into it, and remember the times I was away from family at Christmas. Then I'll put on "How to Make Gravy" by Paul Kelly and "Fairy Tale of New York" by the Pogues before the usual Christmas carols with the family around.

For quite a few years now on Christmas Eve, after dinner and Midnight Mass (now held at 10:00 pm), after everyone is settled in for a long winter’s nap, I ascend to my library/sanctum sanctorum and pull out the same handful of books and once more read the following:

The short story Bless Me Father, For I Have Sinned by Ray Bradbury

The poem Winter Solstice, Camelot Station by John M. Ford, found in Invitation to Camelot, edited by Parke Godwin

Chapter XV of The Sword in the Stone

The first and last chapter from the volume “Christmas,” which is part of The Enchanted World series

The last line/paragraph from each of those works conjures up all the magic of Christmas.

Also, beginning in late November, I often listen to a wonderful unabridged audio book version of The Box of Delights.

Those are some of my Christmas authors/traditions.

>24 betaraybill: Wonderful. And thanks for the enablement. As we have ro drive an hour to get to our Latin Mass community, it makes midnight mass rather difficult so we switched to 7am Low Mass instead. Looking forward to reading those.

Dickens for certain. Also Washington Irving's Old Christmas, Under the Greenwood Tree (Thomas Hardy), Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) and The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) along with A Child's Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas) are traditional annual reads for me at Christmas!

>26 Lady19thC: Just listened DT reading A Child's Christmas in Wales. Loved it.

>25 LesMiserables: Glad you liked what I offered. May the magic of Christmastime surround you this season. :)

>29 betaraybill: And to you, my friend.

>24 betaraybill: Just read your recommendation (?) The short story Bless Me Father, For I Have Sinned by Ray Bradbury.

Lovely.

One sci-fi story I like around this time of year is The New Father Christmas by Brian W. Aldiss.

>29 betaraybill:
>31 LesMiserables:
I just read it, out of curiosity. Wow.

Edited to remove content that was posted while robustly intoxicated on Christmas spirits.

>31 LesMiserables: Thats great! I’m very pleased that you enjoyed it! The last line always gets me. So magical.

>33 folio_books: I’m so happy that you liked it as well. It’s wonderful to share something like this. :)

>36 betaraybill:

It IS wonderful. Your recommendation really made my day. My reading ability is declining these days to the point where a short story is about the most I can hope to take in, so this was very welcome.

My choice for this year's holidays is A Very Scalzi Christmas by Subterranean Press which I found on a second-hand market :)

>24 betaraybill: >31 LesMiserables: >33 folio_books: I've joined the club, reading the Bradbury story. And I'll join the choir in singing its praise - a lovely story indeed.

>24 betaraybill: >31 LesMiserables: >33 folio_books: >39 coynedj: Curiosity got the best of me so I have now also read it. Very enjoyable.

I begin afresh in Advent, a year long reading plan of the Bible, and it begins liturgically with Isaias with the clarion call on the coming of Christ.

I also love reading Luke 1 and 2.

So many translations to choose from, but my preference is the Douay-Rheims.

However with the decade's long anticipated Ignatius Study Bible just being released, using the RSV2CE translation, I'll most definitely try this out, given the accompanying scholarship.

>43 LesMiserables:

I've been reading the yet-to-be-completed Word on Fire Bible, based on the same translation. I've been enjoying it quite a bit but would be curious of your view of the Ignatius Study Bible.

>44 podaniel: Of course. I imagine it won't arrive before February, but will check back.

I have read Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising" every Christmastide for over 40 years. I begin reading on Midwinter's Day (as the book begins" and pace myself through Epiphany (as the book ends.) One would think it becomes boring after a while, but I find Cooper's story so rich, so full of lore, so resonant for today's world.
Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" is also a yearly gift to myself, and I'm not sorry to say that Geraldine Page's Sook (from the television version of many years ago) has always been the image and voice in my head.
As a lover of folklore, the "Very Christmas" series from New Vessel Press has recently become a new delight - with multiple volumes featuring Ireland, Scandinavia, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Russia - and now volumes on Chanukkah and this year's intriguing one on India.
I also find the multiple volumes of Christmas and holiday mystery stories in the "British Library Crime Classics" series from Poisoned Pen Press to really fit the bill when I desperately need something short enough for a single sitting.
All of that being said, this year's gift to myself will be Niall Williams' "Time of the Child" - I absolutely cannot wait!

I think it's because the movies came out at Christmastime - I'd already read the books at that point, but ever since either re-reading or re-watching Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit has been a Christmas tradition. Serkis did some fantastic audiobook versions a couple of years ago, this year it's the Harper-Collins version of the Folio LE.

>37 folio_books:: >39 coynedj:: >42 assemblyman:: To all who have read my Bradbury suggestion, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you have found it to be such a worthy read.

I’m more eager than ever to read it this year.
As the clock creeps toward midnight on the threshold of the winter solstice, I’m looking out at the freshly fallen snow here in Central Massachusetts, and I can’t help but think that “Christmas, like the snow, was everywhere.”

>2 LT79: Empire of the Sun is one I have out to contemplate in the next few days. Very worthwhile.

>1 LesMiserables: I always absorb Christmas Carol at this time. I feel I have to do that as it is so Christmassy and Tiny Tim is a picture of suffering in a humble way, like Jesus Christ..

>48 betaraybill: the text is free to find on the internet.

>51 Macumbeira: Good to know!

>51 Macumbeira: >52 betaraybill: That's how I read it - I was surprised that I and my local library had nary a print copy.

Another recommendation: "Christmas Eve" in The collected stories of Nikolai Gogol. ( FS 2009 )
Nicely illustrated by Peter Stuart.

>53 coynedj: I had to look up the word nary...

The Gospel authors Matthew and Luke who wrote about the birth of Jesus Christ deserve a mention here.

Christmas chapbooks used to be a tradition with a number of private presses, and a few still do them today. Here are some from my collection:

The Christmas Pudding (Incline Press)
Christmas Trees (Lone Oak Press)
Twelve Narratives for Christmas (Quarto Press)
The Faun's Christmas (Rose Valley Press)
The Legend of Saint Christopher (Rose Valley Press)
The Shoemaker's Christmas (Rose Valley Press)
A Compendium of Carols: Holiday Verses (Thornwillow)

>56 Pendrainllwyn: True, I did mention St. Luke above in #43, but not St. Matthew.

>55 Macumbeira: Similar to the Glaswegian 'nane'.

The Christmas chapter in Moby Dick ? The Pequod setting sail in Nantucket in ice-cold weather ?

Some great suggestions here. A few more which I don't see mentioned above:
- Village Christmas - Laurie Lee
- Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit - Wodehouse
- The Shortest Day - Susan Cooper
- Ariel Poems - T S Eliot, esp. The Journey of the Magi and The Cultivation of Christmas Trees

ETA: and I forgot the incredible 'Shapechangers in Winter' by Margaret Atwood.

>61 Levin40:

jotted down : Ariel Poems - T S Eliot, esp. The Journey of the Magi and The Cultivation of Christmas Trees

yeah ! have it in my "collected poems" bundle

>61 Levin40:
>62 Macumbeira:

. . . and the Christmas Poems of U. A. Fanthorpe, eg. 'BC:AD' and 'The Sheepdog'.

Several of those mentioned above.
I don’t have a strict regular, but most years I reread one of these:
> Dickens, A Christmas Carol
> Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales
> Jane Austen, one or other of the novels

Last year: Graham, The Wind in the Willows

But this year: Armitage (trans.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, definitely a Christmas story.

This year I’m rereading Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, I’m thinking of making this my Christmas tradition.

>47 A.Godhelm: After a full read of The Lord of the Rings, I've immediately followed this up with beginning the audio production of the unabridged version narrated by Andy Serkis. First time round, having previously listened to Rob Inglis a couple of times, I'm finding this just somewhat a lesser cousin. Gandalf is just too constant in his intensity - bristling - I'd describe Serkis' efforts. It's not in harmony with Tolkien's narrative and person. Worse might be Peregrine Took. The Scottish accent is pure biscuit tin and lamentable. I get the connection with Billy Boyd but it didn't come off.

>66 LesMiserables: LesMiserables, your post has interesting timing. Just yesterday, I was thinking of this thread, and how you enjoyed my Christmas Eve/post-midnight Mass reading tradition.

Some years ago, I came upon this highly impressive reading of LOTR.

I hope that you, along with anyone else who gives it a try, enjoys it. It was an effort nigh unto the forging of the Silmarils! ;)

https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragas...

https://archive.org/details/the-two-towers_soundscape-by-phil-dragash

https://archive.org/details/the-return-of-the-king_soundscape-by-phil-dragash

>67 betaraybill: A very impressive production!

>68 LesMiserables: Quite the labor of love indeed.

>69 betaraybill: Indeed. To my ear, residing in the treble to alto range, the narrator is uncommon insofar that it contrasts to the more common choice of bass-baritone for male recordings. It doesn't take long for one to tune into the change in pitch, despite being myself almost wholly used to more sonorous or stentorian productions.

The interesting thing about the Serkis production, is the alignment with accents explicitly linked to the actors from the Peter Jackson trilogy.

Is this unimaginative or a homage to his friends?

>23 SimB: “How to make Gravy” has been turned into a fantastic telemovie now.
It will become my standard Christmas go-to film now.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I re-read Sherlock Holmes during the Christmas period and have done for years.

>72 Thwack:

I must say I like to re-read Holmes at any time of the year, but Christmas is as good as any!

OT comment for Sherlock Holmes afficionados: I've just recently got back from a holiday in Switzerland where I visited the Reichenbach Falls. Fans will remember this is where Holmes has a fateful struggle with arch-villain Professor Moriarty on a precipice. The nearby town of Meiringen, where Holmes and Watson are staying, is not bashful in exploiting the connection, even down to silhouette cut-outs in the litter bins. More interesting is the small eponymous "museum" which includes a very detailed full-size mock-up of Holmes and Watson's front room and possessions at 221B Baker Street in London. Meiringen's other claim to fame, as the original birthplace of the meringue, is much less in evidence.

>70 LesMiserables: Yes, the narrator, Phil Dragash, does stand apart when compared to the usual bass-baritone readings by men. I found it easy to slip into his range and style. He’s similar to Serkis in giving the characters voices inspired by the actors from the films.

Here’s some info re: his production:

2010 - 2013 J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” unofficial unabridged audiobook. Not only read by me, but with music by Howard Shore (for the film trilogy), and immersive sound effects that provide the written word with a more lifelike experience.

As of 2013, I have completed the entire book, which combined make up 48 hours of listening. Being a one-man venture, this little side-project is not without its errors and minor glitches and mistakes. I have also painted most of the background images on each video frame, and designed each cover.

To see the image gallery of all the thumbnails I made for the time the audiobooks were on YouTube, click here.

http://www.phildragash.com/lotr-chapter-thumbnails.html#&gid=1&pid=1

I listened to the complete Rob Inglis narration during a cross country drive between New York and San Francisco in 2003 and loved it!

>74 betaraybill: Impressive to say the least!

>75 HonorWulf: Yes, really enjoyed the Inglis set. My favourite to date.

>73 boldface: Sounds like a very interesting trip!

At least for the twelfth day, Joyce's "The Dead," which takes place on the Epiphany. I usually find my way back to it around that time.

>78 Thwack:

Thanks. Yes, it was.