Holiday reading.
Just stringing the words together conjures up images of lounging in a comfy sweater, a mug of hot cocoa in my hands as I drowsily read by firelight. A golden retriever naps at my feet while family and friends bustle about, everyone scavenging leftover sweet potato casserole and turkey while “A Christmas Story” or “It’s A Wonderful Life” plays in the background.
Cozy, right? Nevermind that I don’t have a fireplace by which to read by. (And who am I kidding? We don’t usually have too many leftovers — especially after I’ve jumped into the green bean casserole. Yum.) The most important piece of the puzzle keeping me from living out my holiday reading fantasy is this: I have no time.
I love my job and am very happy to have it, don’t get me wrong, but the trouble is . . . I have to, you know, work. And part of being an adult is not having awesome stuff like “Christmas vacation,” because if we’re not here? The newspapers don’t come out, friends. And considering the holidays are actually quite newsworthy, we’re all here — buzzing and editing away. Gone are the days of leaving school early, hurrying home and baking cookies with Mom while classic songs play in the background. Because while all that is going on? I’m still here. Working.
Lots of folks have been discussing holiday reading lately — the books they’re stocking up on in preparation for a nice, long break around Christmas. As I’ve used up all my vacation time this year, I won’t have any bonus time in which to hunker down with a novel — but I do have two jolly reads lined up to help put me in the spirit.
Sandra Harper’s Over The Holidays
This story of three women with three very different ideas of how to spend Christmas is a win from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, and I’m really looking forward to reading it! Kay at The Infinite Shelf read it recently and, though she hasn’t reviewed it yet, I’m eager to hear what she thought. I enjoyed Amy’s review of this one, too! And the cover just puts me in a good mood. Even if the novel is, apparently, about how stressful the holidays can be . . . we shall see!
Jeff Guinn’s The Autobiography Of Santa Claus
Languishing in a downstairs bookcase for more than a year, this novel was purchased quite randomly by my dad — and I’ve been looking at it for months! Since it’s now seasonally appropriate, I think I’ll be giving it a go soon. Plus, who doesn’t want to read about Santa at this time of year? Count me in!
write meg! 
The Autobiography of Santa Claus was a major bore.
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I feel your pain. No time for reading right now for me either. One day, one day.
http://www.asyoustitch.etsy.com
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I don’t have holiday books on my pile but some must read before the year ends books!! Like Hunger Games/Catching Fire!!
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My place doesn’t have vast resources so anything that I find in the bookstore that would get my attention or is one of my list would be what I would read.
I’ll be waiting for your reviews Meg! I love reading your reviews. They contain flesh 🙂
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I’m sorry that you have to work so much around the Holidays – I’m in the same boat so I know how you must feel. I do have a stack of TBR, recently purchased, containing Holiday themes for the Christmas Challenge. Over the Holidays is one of the one’s on my list that I’m looking forward to! Happy reading in between working and whatnot!
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Ugh, that stinks that you have to work! Will you have any time off?
That first book looks really good!
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I thought the Autobiography of Santa Clause was really cute.
It’s too bad you don’t get much time off for Christmas, but hopefully you can get a bit of holiday reading in!
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Working during the holiday season…sucks. What really sucks is my mom is a teacher and she gets 2 weeks off at Christmas–so not fair!
Have a good holiday season. I hope you get some free time to read. : )
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I just love holiday reads!
PS
Have you tried Starbuck’s Caramel Brule Latte yet?
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I read “Over the Holidays” and posted my review, and I think you might like it! It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough I loved the mix of chiklit/women fiction humor and the holidays theme. Loved Harper’s writing, too; it was such a relaxing read!
I read the Autobiography of Santa a couple years ago, and loved it! It was an adorable story. I loved that there were 24 chapters, too, so that you can read it like a book-advent-calendar 😀
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Did you ever end up reading The Autobiography of Santa Claus? I read it a while back, but really did not have a strong opinion of it, but curious what you think!
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