Today, I received my Slightly Foxed Christmas magazine and the first item I noticed was the Posy Simmonds' greetings cards entitled 'Fireside Reading'. The illustration on the front of the card makes me think it's time to make my Christmas reading plans. This is a task I relish!
I love the prospect of the Christmas holidays, a roaring fire and lots of books to read. There are new books to read and old favourites to re-read. The Christmas holidays are one of the few periods of the year when there is time to just sit and read.
The festive season is a great time for books and over the years I have read and collected many favourite authors and books. Every year I read Nicholas Nickleby. I don't always read all of it, but every year I read some of it. I love Dickens at Christmas. He is the epitome of the Christmas spirit, although strangely I'm not mad keen on A Christmas Carol.
On the theme of re-reading I recently purchased, and have just started reading, John Sutherland's A Little History of Literature. It's an excellent read and I completely agree with his thoughts on re-reading "re-reading is one of the great pleasures that literature offers us. The great works of literature are inexhaustible - that is one of the things that makes them great. However often you go back to them, they will always have something new to offer." However, I'm not sure that it's only the great works of literature which are worth a re-read. At Christmas I love many novels and books which probably aren't technically "great" but which are well worth reading and which certainly stand up to a re-read.
