Over the years, I have found that I do actually enjoy reading books in tune with the season happening around me. I have found it is quite pleasant to read Christmas books during Christmas time in particular.
Being able to connect the real and the imaginary so easily adds another dimension to the reading experience for me.
The same as many people, I enjoy re-reading Dickens’ Scrooge story, but it is also nice to discover new favorites. Sometimes though, it is not easy to find the right book at the right time, and this is the time of the anthology. Pam pam!
Yes, I really do love me an anthology, mainly of short stories to be fair, and, to my delight, I have a lot of them. I like how you can dip in and out of them, read something, put them back, and so on, and I am truly astonished sometimes at how many amazingly talented writers are out there that I have never ever heard of.
If I think about it too much it can be depressing, and this feeling is two fold. On the one side there are so many writers I do not know of and my knowledge is so limited, on the other, there are so many brilliant writers that have never become household names, and their work is known to just a few.
Anyway, ‘tis the season to be jolly, so back to our main topic, the seasonal story anthology, which for Christmas for me is the one with stories chosen by Otto Penzler titled The Bog Book Of Christmas Mysteries - The Very Best Yuletide Whodunnits.
I first became acquainted with the Head of Zeus anthologies when I found in a charity shop (to my utter amazement) an anthology of Irish short stories titled The Art Of The Glimpse, stories chosen by Sinead Gleeson. I fell in love with it, and of course, as a true obsessional, I looked up what else was there and to my utter delight there was quite a lot.
Among the other anthologies they have I was delighted to find this Christmas one, oh the joy, Christmas, Mysteries, short stories all in one, what more could I want?!
Of course I whipped out my card and bought it, and I must say it does not disappoint.
I like a lot the fact that the stories themselves are quite different one form the other, from different times and they carry the reader through such a varied landscape but still all for Christmas.
The anthology is organized in sections, to guide the reader to the type of story they feel like reading at that moment, and the sections range from traditional to modern, from funny to uncanny, from pulpy to classic, etc.
What convinced me to buy it was the varied list of authors chosen for it, there are names that I know and drew me to it like Agatha Christie, Colin Dexter, G.K. Chesterton, Isaac Asimov, Ellis Peters, Thomas Hardy, but even more that I do not know and it has been a pleasure to discover.
I love sampling such different writing styles in bite size chunks. It is so enjoyable and at the same time such an education.
I often read other Christmas books at the same time, but having the back up of the anthology is quite comforting, because it is always there, as an option, for me when I am in the mood for something Christmassy.
Through these anthologies I have been introduced to so many wonderful new (to me) writers, that I can only be happy I stumbled upon them.
What do you like to read at Christmas time? Anything special or just the usual suspects?
Happy Christmas!
I hope Santy brings you a lot of joy and happiness!