Litwit Lounge discussion

For those interested in participating in a group read for Christmas, please post your nominations here. Probably a short read/novella is best.

Group reads can be great fun, but alas, I won't be able to take part in this one. If all goes according to plan (it depends on another son-in-law's medical condition) we'll be in Australia for most of December, celebrating Christmas with our oldest daughter and her husband. She gave me Stephenie Meyer's The Host earlier this year, and I promised her I'd take it along for airport/airplane reading --at 600+ pages, it's ideal for long flights (so not "a short read/novella" by any means!). Even if we don't go, I plan to read it in December, since I promised.

Australia!!! Lucky you! I've wanted to go there for a long time but have never gotten the opportunity.

Sorry, Reggia, I don't think my schedule--mundane though it is--will really accommodate a group read right now, either.

Okay, maybe we can try again for a group read after the new year. I will, however, indulge in a Christmas read myself, just not sure what yet. Like your tradition, Charly.

Does anybody watch A Christmas Carol on TV? Any opinions on the different versions, or how Dickinson's story is written into many sitcoms this time of year?

I'll confess first. :o I kinda like them. It's a classic story, and like Austen's Pride & Prejudice seems to adapt well to many retellings, lol, that's just my personal opinion. Certainly, they both have had many a retake.

My personal favorite movie version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol is the 1951 black-and-white version with Alistair Sim as Scrooge. My wife and I usually watch that one once a year during the Christmas season.

That's my fave, too, Werner.

I have a vinyl copy of Dylan Thomas reading, A Child's Christmas in Wales which transports me perfectly into the spirit. As much as I appreciate film in general and black and white in particular, I enjoy the ghostly evocations of the spoken word, especially by that of a master.

...am reading Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans for my Christmas read.

It was a rather disappointing read -- oh well.

Good to see you, Charly. :-)

I love that story! I'm not a big fan of short stories but O Henry may be just the author to change my opinion. Maybe I'll get a book of his stories, they'd be great for reading during breaks at work.

"The Gift of the Magi" is an outstanding story! I'm familiar with it, so could easily join in a discussion of it next Christmas.

Reggia, O. Henry is a master of the short story form. His trademark is the surprise ending, but he knows how to pull that off so that it's a natural development of the logic of the story, not something dragged in from left field; and he has a warm human sympathy for his characters.

Yes, Charly, O. Henry wrote "The Ransom of Red Chief." That's a relatively rare example of a story he set in his native South, rather than his adopted home, New York City.