On the Fourth Day of a Feminine Christmas
Christmas and books just go together. And if I receive a book for a Christmas present, I am usually very delighted.
Lists are created of the most popular or most purchased books of the year. But the books I like to read are rarely on those lists.
For the most part, I enjoy old books and stories of other times. My public library system had but one copy of a book I had been looking for. It was “All that Heaven Allows” by Edna and Harry Lee, who believe it or not, were a mother and son author-duo. There wasn’t much I could find out about them but they wrote a heck of a book that appealed to me in many ways.
“All that Heaven Allows” is also a once-popular movie of the 50’s, starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. The film is widely available and it’s good but it wasn’t as good as the book. The screen version was beautiful in technicolor with splendid scenery and costumes but I couldn’t really believe the romance between Hudson and Wyman. They seemed oddly-matched and then there was the well-cited age difference, a hard chair to get over.
The book, however, drew Wyman’s character so finely that I felt I knew her personally. Or at least I wanted her to be my friend. And I was so engrossed in the love story, that I read the book twice and then scouted out my own affordable used copy from an overseas vendor. The book with an intact dust jacket is running over $350 right now and my copy, somewhat beat up and jacket-less, was $7. I suppose the book was an early Christmas present to myself but I suspect there might be a special new knitting book under my tree this year as well.
I also purchased books for others this year. I chose a slim poetry volume for a vapid reader of Sylvia Plath and a cooking anthology for someone who loves reading about culinary history. And wrapping books for Christmas is so easy – it’s the only package I really excel at…just four even corners and a bow on top.
One more thing – is there a better week to get lost in a book than the one between Christmas and New Year? I wish you books this Christmas!
3 Comments
Susan
Hey, I like Sylvia Plath’s work! Does that make me vapid? Her “Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices” is my favorite, so touching if you’ve ever had a baby… or lost a baby.
Dana
My all time favorite gifts are books- to give and receive. Love finding the right one that suits someone’s interests. I never heard of All the heavens Allow but now I am intrigued and off to find book or movie. I’m very much enjoying your 12 days of Christmas series.
Karen
Oh, you nailed it! There’s nothing I love more than a well-chosen book under my tree! I especially like the kind of books you’re describing, the odd lot books you wouldn’t buy for yourself, but you eye longingly when you go into an old-fashioned bookstore… anything by Grace Livingston Hill in hardback always tops my list, because my paperbacks of hers are falling to tatters from overuse. I love travel books, too, specially to places I wish I could go, but suspect will never happen. And sweet old novels written before the overarching need was to “shock and awe” the poor reader, those are lovely too. As I wanted to live in a bookmobile or library as a kid, this really struck a chord!