Traditions # 3

THE READING OF THE GOOD BOOK

Oh, c'mon! After reading my blog for all this time, you didn't think I was referring to The Bible, did you?

Nah, I'm talking about the reading of any good book, but the reading takes place at a designated time and place and with a specific methodology. What is this, you ask? Reading is reading, right? Usually, yes . . . but not so on Christmas! I love this tradition as it is strictly mine, created when I was ten-years-old, adhered to every year since, and (best of all!) has been adopted by The Boy as well.

When I was eight, Santa left me the most remarkable gift ever. A gift set of Neil Hancock's "Circle of Light" fantasy series. I opened the first book "Greyfax Grimwald" on Christmas afternoon, around 4:00 p.m. (after we were all exhausted from playing with all the new toys and all my older rothers were napping) See, I had only recently read "The Hobbit" and Santa thought I would like another fantasy to work through. Oh man, was he ever right! This series had a fantastic feel to it like nothing I've ever read since. It was a kid's fantasy story but it was completely otherwordly! I can still feel the incredible sense of awe I had reading through it. (I really should pick them up again and see how they stack up after thirty years . . .)

Anyway, the book was so amazing that I couldn't put it down. I read right through dinner and on into the night. By the time I thought to see what everyone else was up to, it was past 2:00 a.m. and I was the only one in the house still awake . . . and starving! I rustled up some Christmas cookies and sat back down on the couch, munching and reading. That night of sitting in absolute silence, snacking on the cookies, was one of the most memorable of my entire life. I can't recall ever feeling so content, or at peace with the world, in my entire childhood as I was reading Mr. Hancock's book. I read it cover-to-cover that night and didn't go to bed until nearly 5:00 a.m. It was wonderful. So much in fact, that I did the same the following Christmas, and every one since. Oh, the books change, but the process is the same. I start a book on Christmas night and do not put it down until I have read its entirety. I turn off all TV and music, and just read while snacking on the Christmas cookies and occasionally staring up at the lighted tree. It's still as much fun as it was that first Christmas. there's something so . . . free, I guess, about knowing you are not going to be disturbed out of your fantasy world. No one is going to call, you don't need to go to work in the morning, there's no work that needs be done . . . you can travel to the Realms of the Muse completely and without any feeling of guilt about shirking responsibilities. It's Christmas after all, and that's the gift I give myself each year.

Try it . . You'll never miss a Christmas-night-read again!

Later!