Book a Day – A Christmas Carol

Book a Day I read because of my reading club – August 2018

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was a book we decided to read for December in 2016. I enjoyed the book and the meeting more than I expected. You can read my review on the book HERE.

We made the meeting extra merry due to the season and book inspirations. One of the readers brought in a small Christmas tree with shining lights and was even considerate enough to bring extra electric cable so we can plug it in and set in the middle of our table. There were cookies and wine.

We made the meeting special and it is still one of my best memories from a book club meeting. After that one, we encouraged each other to prepare for the meetings with trinkets and sun games more often.

Monthly reading review – December 2016

This December I have read:

Soumission by Michel Houellebecq ★★

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ★★★★

1. How many books you’ve read last month? Are you happy with the amount you read?

The picture above shows the December I would have liked to have seen. Alas there was no snow and the number of books I’ve read in December barely held together at two! I’m not pleased with the number but I doubt I could have made it much higher by sacrificing the time I had to invest in other things.

2. What was the best of all the books you’ve read in December? Any scenes or characters that made a lasting impression?

I was very delighted with A Christmas Carol. It is a great books for December reading and it lifted my spirits quite a bit. Our Book Club meeting was magical as well.

3. Were there any not so good books for you last month? What made it hard or not enjoyable to read?

Soumission by Michel Houellebecq was kinda hard for me to read for several reasons. For starters I’ve actually started reading one edition and had to finish the last half of the book reading a completely different edition. The differences were stunning! And not in a good way. This gave me perspective and more appreciation for translators and their work. Second thing that made this book hard to read was the historical and literary details on French authors and political aspects the author obviously has much knowledge of. Since I’m not very interested in politics – something books like these are meant to keep me up with – nor am I French these things were not very familiar to me and I had to keep stopping my reading to Google this or that…

4. How did the books you were reading last month fit in your reading plans if you had any?

I scored with the book club book and the rest I kinda flopped out on…

5. Any updates on the series you are reading or are you starting any new series?

Complete bust in series department. Only promising thing is that I started reading some of the books I’m lugging since summer and they happen to be part of book series.

6. Would you like to recommend any books or authors you’ve been reading this last month?

While I struggle with some books like Soumission this December I realized I need to get out of my comfort zone every once in a while. This is my recommendation from December. It makes us remember and appreciate the things we love. It made me look forward to some books 

 

A Christmas Carol – Book Review

Finished reading

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

★★★★

Expectation

This was my first reading of this little book. It was a book club assignment for December. Since lately work has been busy and reading has been scarce altogether I liked the idea of a short little book. Nevertheless I decided to read it in English in this quirky edition showed in the picture above.

“I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Summary

As I began to read I loved the author’s dedication at the beginning of the book. It was the first thing about this little book that made me realize I’m going to love reading it! Lately I was in bit of a Scrooge mode myself and this one paragraph really struck a cord:

“What’s Christmastime to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older; and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em trough a round dozen of months presented dead against you? ”

Only thing I’ve read by Charles Dickens before this was Oliver Twist as a mandatory reading in school. As an easily impressed child I found it to be quite depressing.

This time reading it in English AND with a bit more cheery topic I loved the authors writing style. Some catchphrases and metaphors had profound impact on me.

…fellow passengers to the grave…

…darkness is cheap…

…more of gravy than of grave with you…

…bachelor was a wretched outcast…

Conclusion

I’m glad I’ve read this little book. It is a wonderful feel good book. If not for it’s Christmasy theme it might not be so easy to go over some parts of it. Just complaining over this tiny bit makes one feel like a Scrooge from the beginning of the book.