Saturday, December 4, 2010

Virtual Advent Tour - Books for Christmas

    I stumbled across the virtual advent tour and thought it was a great idea. As a new blogger I also thought it would be a guide to other blogs and would also introduce my blog to others. I hope that this will become a new Christmas tradition for me.

I'm very lucky to have been born into a family of readers. For as long as I can remember, my mother has sat in her rocking chair reading. She reads mainly mysteries, so I come by that reading choice honestly. My father reads mostly non-fiction, my brother sci-fi, and my sister literary fiction. There are always newspapers and magazines around, and lots and lots of books. I'm also very lucky to live in a country that observes Boxing Day, Dec. 26th, the perfect day to hunker down and read the new books that have shown up under the Christmas tree, and to eat left-over turkey.
This usually works out, but one year I did not receive a single book for Christmas. I can hear you gasp in horror. Everyone else got something new to read, but not me, and I wandered around bereft without anything to do. Mind you, I could have got in my car and driven fifteen minutes to my place and chosen any number of books from Mt. TBR, but it just wouldn't have been the same. I now put several titles on my Christmas list, and my sister makes sure I will get at least one of them. Actually, now that my sister and I are the main shoppers for the family, we make sure that everyone will have some reading material for those nice lulls that occur between gift-giving and turkey-eating, and on Boxing Day. Everyone gets a magazine in his or her stocking, and everyone gets at least one book under the tree. In the picture my nephew Ian is opening his stocking and you can see the book he got in it.
So, what are the books on my list to give and receive?
For my mother I think it might be The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny.
For my father, The Damned by Nathan Greenfield, nonfiction about Canadians in the battle of Hong Kong and the POW experience.
For my sister, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
For my brother one of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett that he doesn't have yet.
And for my nephew Ian, I think I'll get him Bunnicula.
As for my brother-in-law, I haven't a clue!
Some of the titles on my list are: Sign of the Cross by Anne Emery, Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane, and On the Line by S.J. Rozan, just to name a few.

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas with lots of love and laughter, and maybe a lull or two for some good reading.

Lesley
P.S. The videos on the side are of my hometown, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, where the Hallmark movie November Christmas was shot this past August. It was fun to see all the Christmas decorations up in the middle of a heatwave.

10 comments:

  1. I hate Christmases where no-one gives me books! Wretched. And you are absolutely right, Boxing Day IS for reading :-)

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  2. Thanks for sharing your story!
    How sad you didn't get any books last year. I usually don't either but I go shopping with my husband and buy some myself. That is a real treat as we live in the Netherlands but shop in the great book stores in England when we are visiting my in-laws.

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  3. No one ever gives me books! Luckily I already have hundreds here to choose from!

    Thanks so much for joining in on the tour! I hope it becomes a Christmas tradition for you too!

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  4. Oooh! That must've been a sad Christmas indeed, to have not received a book to read on Boxing Day!

    Thanks for sharing for the Virtual Advent Tour - it's a lot of fun finding new blogs through the tour. :)

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  5. A pleasure to meet you via this Advent Tour and delighted to hear that your family puts a magazine in eveyrone's stocking and a book for everyone under the tree. Same here! It's become a major interest to see what magazine we'll get in our stocking - always something of a surprise and caters to things we're interested in but would never buy. (I got one last year on scrapbooking, which i don't do, literally, but I do enjoy "scrapjournaling) and my husband rec'd one about Ceaser and training dogs (cuz we're always teasing him about how the dogs don't behave and always count on him for treats and biscuits.)

    Anyway, this was so enjoyable and then saw that you live in Nova Scotia, so I'd better not complain about the cold here in St Louis, and I see you enjoy author Charlaine Harris, too! (my daughter has intro'd her to me). So looking forward to reading over Christmas vacation.

    Happy holidays to you and yours!

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  6. Magazines for Stockings - what a great idea! I have bought my stocking gifts for this year but I have to remember that for next year.

    I'm so with you, no one buys me books because I have so many that no one knows what to buy for me. Then they all had the nerve to growl whenever I asked for gift certificates for books.

    So I nap during Boxing Day ;)

    Hope you get some great books!

    Cindys

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  7. Lovely. Books are just the best presents. I have decided that this year all of the children in the family and the adults too are having a book as a present from me. You are so right when you talk about the lulls when a book is just the right present to pick up and spend some quiet moments with.

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  8. I never get books but I love it so much. Everybody wants to make big and expensive presents but all I want is books. "But you have so many". Ok, yes, buthere is no such thing as "too many books", right?
    Enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing.

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  9. Hello from another Nova Scotian! I love getting books for Christmas (even though I have lots already). I still remember reading Little Women for the first time during the Christmas break.

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  10. I wish I could buy books for everyone on my list, but lots of people would probably get a bit annoyed with me...I am lucky I get books myself!

    I am another Nova Scotian, actually. I live about 10 mins from Wolfville. :)

    Thanks for joining in with the blog tour!

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