Books you got for Christmas

[jameswba]

Hamnet was a book that I was given last Christmas. Having just finished a long book on cricket, I had been debating what to read next - it was a toss up between Hamnet and How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (another Christmas present from a previous year). Now, thanks to Sam and jameswba, I have my decision made.

It probably won't be the next book I read, but look forward to coming back here to discuss it.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

As well as the Viz annual ('the Zookeper's Boot'), Rutherford and Fry's 'Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything', which looks slightly more highbrow.

[Sunderporinostesta]

Football: Designing The Beautiful Game. A tie in with the recent Design Museum Football Exhibition.

Colditz by Ben McIntyre. My god that man’s found himself a lucrative niche. We visited Colditz Castle during a 2011 Woman’s WC jaunt around Germany. Unfortunately I dropped my camera onto the cobbles while queuing for entry and photos were a bit out of focus. If you’re ever in the Leipzig/Dresden area I can’t recommend it enough. Especially if you’re old enough to remember the BBC TV series. The guide mentioned the local council were considering a change of use so don’t hang around. Half of it was a music school iirc.

[Sits]

The Kelpie by Tony Parsons (a different Tony Parsons). A full history of the Australian working dog breed, including training tips, should I choose to take up cattle or sheep farming. A big, beautiful book from Mrs. S.

[imp]

As well as the two music books mentioned on the appropriate thread, my eldest got me Ryan Herman's 'Remarkable Football Grounds', a beautiful browser's book for the holiday season. The prose is below average (repetition of very well-known facts, plus for example unquestioningly repeats Qatar 2022's extremely dubious claim to having been a climate-neutral World Cup), but it's worth enduring/speed-reading/skipping that for the photography.

[imp]

And yes, Hamnet is a fantastic novel.

[Jimski]

Between us, my wife and I were given Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow by another friend. I hadn't heard of this before, but its premise is quite appealing.

Ah yes, I read that recently. Don't be worried if it takes you 100 or so pages to get into it (it did me), but by the end I was thoroughly captivated by it. The tone had initially slightly put me off, but I came to love it.

Rather unusually, I only got one book for Christmas this year, namely The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam. I gave Jonathan Coe's Bournville to my wife, so will read that too when she's done with it.

[Jon]

Ah yes, I read that recently. Don't be worried if it takes you 100 or so pages to get into it (it did me), but by the end I was thoroughly captivated by it. The tone had initially slightly put me off, but I came to love it.

Rather unusually, I only got one book for Christmas this year, namely The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam. I gave Jonathan Coe's Bournville to my wife, so will read that too when she's done with it.

My mum has been reading bournville and is raving about it every time I see her.

[ale]

No books but an Amazon voucher which have so far used to get on Kindle:

A M Shine-The Watchers
David B Lyons-In The Middle Of Middle America
Graeme Thompson-Themes For Great Cities:New History Of Simple Minds
Richard Houghton-OMD: Pretending To See The Future
OTF own Ian Plenderleith-Rock n Roll Soccer
Philip Fracassi-A Child Alone With Strangers

[Jobi1]

I got surprisingly few books this Christmas by my family's usual standards, just a couple of WWII things from the husband (Command by Al Murray and The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith), a beautiful new illustrated edition of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from my mum, and a big hardback photo book Remarkable Football Grounds from my brother-in-law. Very happy with all of them.

[diggedy derek]

Finally cracked the code and managed to get zero books for Christmas. I just have too many and (call me grumpy) want to read what I want and not what other people guess I do. At any one point in time I have loads of books I already should be reading and don’t want to add to the pile

But, I did nick a book from my Dad. Arto Paasilinna’s poignant comic romp The Year Of The Hare. It’s a Finnish classic, quite akin to Kafka’s darkly illuminating comedies

[Jobi1]

I hate to sound ungrateful, but I very much feel the same. I even make it known where my "want to read" lists can be found, and my family still try to guess at other things. Sometimes they pick decent ones, but there are a fair few sitting on my shelves from several Christmases/birthdays ago that I know will never be picked up, other than to be sent to the charity shop without ever having been opened.

That said, I did receive yesterday a final gift of the season at our annual "friends' Christmas" (where a few of my husband's longest-standing friends get together and exchange gifts of varying degrees of seriousness) which I did very much appreciate – Jim Moir's (Vic Reeves) genuinely beautiful book of watercolours of British birds.