Jump to content

The Christmas Reading Challenge 2022


Hayley

Recommended Posts

Welcome to the first Christmas Reading Challenge! This year, participants should choose books from the following three categories:

 

  • A Christmas Mystery
  • A Christmas Children's Story
  • A Book with Snow on the Cover or in the Title 

 

We will officially start the challenge on November 25th (to give us one month until Christmas!) but feel free to use this thread to start planning your Christmas Challenge books!

 

Let the festivities begin :cheers:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hooray! *Runs off to see what I can find*

 

 

Edited to add :

 

A Christmas Mystery - The Adventure Of the Blue Carbuncle, Arthur Conan Doyle

 

A Christmas Children's Story - A Letter To Santa Claus, Mark Twain

 

A Book with Snow on the Cover or in the Title - The Snow Queen In Seven Stories, Hans Christian Andersen

Edited by lunababymoonchild
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mystery wise I think I will join you with Sherlock, @lunababymoonchild and The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle, if you are OK with that. :) 

 

For the Children's story, if it is considered a legitimate contender, I would really enjoy a re read of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Father Christmas certainly makes an appearance!

 

For the Snow covered / entitled book, I was thinking perhaps The Snow Child. It's a book I have had for a long while, but never got around to reading. 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Chrissy said:

Mystery wise I think I will join you with Sherlock, @lunababymoonchild and The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle, if you are OK with that. :) 

Absolutely, OK with that!

 

58 minutes ago, Chrissy said:

For the Children's story, if it is considered a legitimate contender, I would really enjoy a re read of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Father Christmas certainly makes an appearance!

 

For the Snow covered / entitled book, I was thinking perhaps The Snow Child. It's a book I have had for a long while, but never got around to reading. 

Good choices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is a great choice for the mystery. I’ve read it a couple of times before but I think I might join in with this one too!

 

My book with snow on the cover will be either Midnight in Everwood or The Toy Makers

 

ABD114A6-E6BE-4B90-ADCE-D3C728596847.jpeg

And I might try The Nutcracker for the first time for my children’s book!

 

 

11 hours ago, Chrissy said:

For the Snow covered / entitled book, I was thinking perhaps The Snow Child. It's a book I have had for a long while, but never got around to reading. 

I saw this ages ago and thought it sounded really good. It had completely gone out of my head! I think others read and enjoyed it on here, if I remember correctly?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/22/2022 at 9:22 AM, Chrissy said:

For the Children's story, if it is considered a legitimate contender, I would really enjoy a re read of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Father Christmas certainly makes an appearance!

 

Does Father Christmas appear in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? I haven’t read it in years and can’t remember this happening at all, but I do have a copy of it so this is the perfect selection for me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Kudz said:

 

Does Father Christmas appear in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? I haven’t read it in years and can’t remember this happening at all, but I do have a copy of it so this is the perfect selection for me!

Apparently so. I've never read it so I might join in on that one too - when I was in primary school a classmate of mine recommended it and I've never gotten around to reading it.

Edited by lunababymoonchild
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I decided to go with Midnight in Everwood! I started it this morning :) 

 

17 hours ago, Kudz said:

Does Father Christmas appear in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? I haven’t read it in years and can’t remember this happening at all, but I do have a copy of it so this is the perfect selection for me!

It always struck me as slightly odd that Father Christmas turns up, especially when it's such a brief appearance, but when I read it again as an adult it does make sense!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Need to think about the second one - pretty much renounced children's books when I gave up primary teaching, and in no hurry to go back!  The only exception in the last 5 years has been Paddington (!) otherwise need to find a 'grown up' children's book. Might reread The Dark Is Rising which was superb. Have to think about the rest as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, willoyd said:

Need to think about the second one - pretty much renounced children's books when I gave up primary teaching, and in no hurry to go back!

I was thinking of reading Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring. Although it’s a children’s book, the satire was clearly intended for adults. Maybe something like that? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Hayley said:

I was thinking of reading Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring. Although it’s a children’s book, the satire was clearly intended for adults. Maybe something like that? 

 

I did not know anything about this. What a great idea! Thackeray (according to the very short internet search I did) referred to this as a pantomime and everybody knows that pantomimes are only played at Christmas.

 

Got it on Project Gutenberg

Edited by lunababymoonchild
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2022 at 11:26 PM, Hayley said:

I was thinking of reading Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring. Although it’s a children’s book, the satire was clearly intended for adults. Maybe something like that? 

 

Thanks Hayley. Certainly worth a thought.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:

Finished A Maigret Christmas

Was it good?

 

I’m enjoying Midnight in Everwood. There were a couple of moments near the beginning where I thought ‘I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy this as much as I expected…’ but I’m just over half way through now and things are more intriguing! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Hayley said:

Was it good?

It was. Three short stories, only one of which was about Maigret!

 

36 minutes ago, Hayley said:

I’m enjoying Midnight in Everwood. There were a couple of moments near the beginning where I thought ‘I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy this as much as I expected…’ but I’m just over half way through now and things are more intriguing! 

 

That's good. 

 

I'm considering my next choice carefully

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle at the weekend. And enjoyable Sherlock Holmes short story. A typical tale in a familiar setting. 

 

As I have struggled with my reading over the past couple of year,  I had wondered if I would The Snow Child hard work, so decided to get started on that. I finished last night, after a few days of really enjoying my reading times. It's a gentle read in many ways, and despite feeling like I knew exactly where the story would head, I enjoyed a couple of surprises. 

 

So onward to Narnia, and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

 

I may have to add more Christmas stories and books to my list, as this challenge has somewhat prodded the embers of my subdued reading. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...