Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up
its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
~ Joseph Addison ~
Books are not made for furniture,
but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
Empty spaces have been filled and more furnishing added this Christmas season both at my house and no doubt at yours as well. Bound adventures waiting to be experienced for the first time, or in a new way, are:
The aforementioned Absolute Sandman, Absolute New Frontier, and the Alan Lee illustrated Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In addition there were The Rest Falls Away, The Blue Castle, Reading in the Dark, Urchin of the Riding Stars: The Mistmantle Chronicles book one, The Book of Dead Days, and The Road to Middle-Earth.
I am not the biggest fan of used books unless they are in like-new condition, or are something collectible that I am looking for. An exception to this is old books. I love receiving old, aged books and I was fortunate to get these this Christmas:
(The Lyrical Poems of Robert Burns from my wife. Not sure of the copyright date by the introduction was dated 1895)
and
(A wonderfully illustrated 1932 copy of Hot Water by P.G. Wodehouse from Pat. Pat, Mary and I share a great love for Wodehouse and this is a terrific edition to my collection of older books)
and my brother got me these for Christmas:
Not suprisingly all the recipes in the Peanuts book are desserts, and good ones at that. It has really fun comic strips in between recipe pages. In the picture I included these fantastic nickel bus passes that Jason found for me at an antique store. They have great 50’s graphics and the fact that they are from Kansas City just adds to the nostalgia factor. Very cool.
Yes, I received many wonderful literary gifts and gave some as well. And now I get to give another.
The opportunity to receive a copy of Colleen Gleason’s debut novel, The Rest Falls Away, ended at midnight on Christmas Eve. The winner of a signed copy is, chosen by the highly scientific method of putting all the names in a bowl and letting my daughter draw the winning name, is:
Congratulations! I have emailed you and Colleen so that she can send you a copy of this fun, entertaining novel. I look forward to posting a review in January and will be encouraging you strongly to go out to the bookstore to help us make this book a phenomenal seller.
I want to know what books you received as well! You may notice that some of my gifts were books that I found out about through the various challenges this past year and had added to my Amazon wishlist. Thank you all for the great suggestions! If you have posted about your literary treasures received this holiday season please leave a link in the comments section, or feel free to post about them here. Feel free to also comment about any gifts you received that you are super excited about! I love to ‘rejoice with those who rejoice’ and want to bask in the glow of your satisfaction of any gifts that brought a smile to your face on Christmas morn!
Just wanted to stop by and say Happy Holidays!!!!
(^_^)
*hugs*
Thanks, same to you Mailyn!!!
Merry Christmas, (if somewhat belatedly). I got three books for Christmas this year:
‘Jane Austen’s Guide To Dating’, which I thought would be funny but seems to be quite serious affiar. Good though from what I’ve read.
‘Brilliance of the Moon’, which is a third in a trilogy. I’ve read it before, and it’s one of my favourite books, but for some reason I didn’t own it.
‘The Widow of the South’, which is a historical novel that my mum had recommended to her by one of her librarian friends, and looks very promising.
So yay, lots of good pre-back to school reading for me!
Thanks for sharing, GG! Those sound like great books. I really like the covers of those Otori books.
What a haul! Happy Holidaze! 🙂
Ooh, the Blue Castle! Such a lovely, charming little book!
For Christmas this year, I got The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield), The Making of Pride & Prejudice (Birtwistle & Conklin, about the BBC miniseries), iWoz: How I invented the personal computer, co-founded Apple, and had fun doing it (Steve Wozniak), Knights of the Black & White (Jack Whyte, book 1 in a trilogy), and a cookbook.
And just when I had been getting that stack of unread books to a reasonable size. 😉
Nice presents Court!
For Christmas I got the New Laurell K. Hamilton book, Dance Macabre. Yea! I’ve finished it already. She is one cool kinky writer.
You finished it already! You must read like my wife! I got her 10 books for Christmas…I am waiting anxiously to see if any will be left to read when she goes back to work on the 2nd!
I am ( as is obvious from my website and its name ) a huge fan of the Blue Castle
My senior thesis at University was partially on it.
Enjoy your fabulous books !
People don’t buy me books for Christmas…’cause I buy (or get) them all on my own.
However, I did give a few this season: namely Naked by David Sedaris, for my husband, and some others for my kids.
Congrats to Jenclair! Thanks again for doing this for me Carl!
Merry Christmas! What nice gifties Santa brought you!
I received Marge Piercy’s new poetry book and a couple Stephen Dobyns books. And gift cards for more books! 🙂
Well, Carl, Santa was good to you!!! Nothing makes Christmas like a stack of books; there could be no greater gift. I always make sure to give books, but I’m not always sure to receive them. (This could be due to the fact that I buy myself so many throughout the year!) Actually, this year I did receive quite a few from bibliophile friends at school who knew my feet would be up. I received several books on Origami, which is a great passion of mine, and Suduko, because my mind is not naturally logical. I received The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorn, and from my aunt these two titles: On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Loomis and A Trip to The Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean by Melinda and Robert Blanchard. But, these are not your favorite genre, so let me move on…
I gave my son The Book of Lost Things byJohn Connolly because Borders had it at the top of their list of recommendations for Science Fiction/Fantasy. Let me copy a segment from the inside front flap, because you just may like it yourself:
“New York Times bestselling author John Connolly’s unique imagination takes readers through the end of innocence into adulthood and beyond in this dark and triumphantly creative novel of grief and loss, loyalty and love, and the redemptive power of stories.” Sounds great, doesn’t it?
I also gave him an autographed copy of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather’s Revenge, because we both love reading about the Mafia.
Ha! I’m a winner! Thanks, Carl, I’m emailing Colleen right now! I know, another frenzy of exclamation marks… But I’m so excited!
Thanks, Honey, for all the cool books you gave me for Christmas.
I must confess that I love to read juvenile fiction from the 1940s and 50s. My mom had read the Penny and Tippy Parrish books by Janet Lambert when she was a young woman, and I read them as a young teenager. It was really hard to find all the books in the series at the library back in the 1980s, but Carl found out that Image Cascade Publishing had reprinted them. Such a great gift giver! It is so fun to read them again.
http://www.imagecascade.com/
I love getting books for Christmas. I received What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George (okay, okay, you already knew about that one) and The Best Defense by Alan Dershowitz.
I know it won’t be a signed copy, but I placed the order for a copy of Colleen’s book this evening. I’m looking forward to it.
This year in my family it was a year filled with reading. I only gave one book out which I adore. I do not own a copy myself, and am kind of jealous that my sister-in-law now owns a nice trade copy of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.
I received four books total. Three of which are coffee table books. Mind you I have no coffee table so I am not quite sure where to display them yet.
I received an illustrated book called The Fairies by Suza Scalora; Fairy Art, Artist and Inspirations by Iain Zaczek; and The Ghost Chaser Chronicles Explorations into the Paranormal. This is about some of Britians most famous haunted sites. I love it really, but I think I would rather have one about famous hanuted places in the states. I received only one “reading” book. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Miller with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. I am very happy with all of my books. The one other thing I received in which I absolultly adore is a genuine Korean blanket. My oldest and best friends mother gave me one of which I have been waiting 15 years to receive. It is quite stunning.
I hope that everyone had a fantabulous holiday and will have a safe New Year.
I gave The Book of Lost Things as a gift to and look forward to borrowing it from the recipient in the future! 😉
That Good Fairies of New York book is one I have seen Gaiman write about many times and its one I want to pick up!
Although Amazon sometimes annoys me I can’t say enough about the wish list program. It is such a great way for me to remember things I come across but don’t want to or cannot buy immediately. It also makes a great place to send people to get you the gifts that you really want!
I did not get any books this Christmas, but I did buy books for several nieces and nephews. And I was so pleasantly surprised that none of the kids seemed disappointed by getting books.
Enjoy all your Christmas reads!
I have a lot of B&N gift cards, which will be spent promptly, even though I have a room full of unread books. I have until the end of the week to finish my 3 books in progress (S is for Silence, Stonehenge and Don’t Try This At Home) to complete my year of reading.
Shannin, is the Stonhenge you are reading by Bernard Cornwell? If so, fab book! In fact I just let a friend borrow it Sunday night for some pleasurable reading. It made me want to visit Stonehenge before I die.
Congrats, JenClair!
I didn’t receive any books as Christmas presents. But I was excited to get the 3rd season of MacGyver from my sister and brother-in-law!
I guess my family thinks I have enough books as it is…
If your past comments about the number of unread books you have are any indication, they are probably right Angela! 🙂
What a great bunch of books, Carl! I got two, both cookbooks: Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 by Julia Child and Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners
That Lord of the Rings box set looks amazing. Same for the Wodehouse. I really love his writing, as it never fails to amuse me and it has the same comfort level as my duvet. I received the Booker prize shortlist (there’s a company that does an excellent offer for them in the UK), so you can guess what I’ll be posting on in 2007!
Hooray for Jenclair! I only received one book, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. My daughter checked my wishlist. I’m most excited to read it.
Great gifts! The Blue Castle is so good. Hope you enjoy that one. And, congrats to Jenclair! I’ll be posting my bookish gifts soon.
Congratulations, Jenclair and thanks , Jamie, for reminding me of a book I loved reading a few years ago – Pillars of the Earth. Here’s my list: I Am the Messenger, The Book of Lost Things, Flags of our Fathers, The World Must Know, The Year of Magical Thinking and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. The last two I have already finished. Only got one I think I’ll probably not read – Diana.
Happy New Year, Carl! I love the pictures.