January, Blessed January, Is Finally Here

And not a moment too soon, if you ask me. In fact, it may be a few moments too late. Though, actually, if it were later still, I might have finished the draft I was hoping to complete by the end of the year.

Here's something I've learned this past past week--Getting up at 5:30 or so to work before putting in a day of holiday prep two to three days in a row may not be a stellar plan. Or maybe, as one of my family members has mentioned in the past, I'm just not accustomed to hard work.

As any old Sunday school teacher could tell you, even though it is January we are deep into the Christmas season. So I'm not at all late telling you about the books I got for Christmas or the Christmas-y book adaptation I just finished watching on TV.

First off, a family member gave me a copy of David Copperfield that had been in his family since, maybe, the 1920s or '30s. (My living room is the final resting place for most old children's books in our family, and the family member who gave me David Copperfield thought I would like it, too. And I do.) The book doesn't include a copyright, but the publisher is Walter J. Black, Inc. I'd never heard of that publisher before, but according to an obituary for one of its former presidents, it "specializes in reprints of popular titles, and issues books in the Classics Club, the Detective Book Club and the Giants of Literature series, among others." The book includes the original illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne.

No, I have never read David Copperfield. And, yes, now maybe I should.

The other book I received was The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicky Levy Krupp, which, from what I've read of it so far, is really quite terrific. The book isn't just recipes, which would be kind of gimmicky and get old very, very fast. Instead each title covered includes a description of the book, some recipes related to the story, and then a profile of a book club that has discussed the book. Really, you can skip the recipes, if you want.

Gelman and Levy Krupp have also written The Kids' Book Club Book.

Then this morning I finally finished watching The Hogfather, which ran on a cable station weeks ago and which I've been watching in bits and pieces ever since. The Hogfather is an adaptation of a Discworld book of the same name by Terry Pratchett. The Hogfather is the Discworld equivalent of Santa and Hogswatch is the Discworld equivalent of Christmas. The story involves an assassin hired to off the Hogfather, how he goes about it, and who stops him. (You'll be surprised.)

I found watching this rough going for quite a while because there were a number of characters with what appeared at first to be unrelated storylines and the film kept flipping around among them. I felt I would have enjoyed reading it more than watching it. But the ending was quite interesting and worth hanging around for.

The experience inspired me to read another Pratchett book that's been on my TBR shelf for years. I'm rather enjoying that one. More on that another time.