A Nice Christmas Present From The Huffington Post

The good folks at The Huffington Post books page have adapted my recent piece about "The 10 Best Years That Are Books" into a snazzy slideshow, now called The 10 Best Books That Are Years (fans of SEO will understand the reasons for the title change).  A nice present for Christmas Eve!

Speaking of which:  In honor of this special day, here's the return of my guide to Lesser Known Characters From Dickens's A Christmas Carol, back from the dead like Marley's Ghost.

Good Yule, everybody!

The 10 Best What?

I'm pretty tired of the endless "10 Best Books of the Year" lists that are spilling out all over the place, so I came up with what I hope is a novel variation on the theme: A list of The 10 Best Years That Are Books, up now on The Huffington Post.

You may not realize it, but such a year is staring us all in the face right now: 2010, the coming new year, which became a book in 1982 with Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two. What a prophet that man was!


UPDATE 12/22: A nice mention of this list in the publishing enewsletter Shelf Awareness.

A Very Merry Un-Christmas to You

Scrooge. The Grinch. Satan. To the list of Christmas's greatest antagonists, you may now add the Book Flack. Just a few days into the holiday season and already it's got me PO'd. I'm steaming like a mug of hot cocoa, God help me.

I'm happy to say that I have responded by lashing out on the Huffington Post. In a piece called A Grouch's Guide to Un-Christmas Books, I've offered guidance to help you navigate the holly jolly overkill of the holidays by means of carefully selected reading material--un-Christmas books. These are books that take place at Christmastime, but in terms of tone and content are quite at odds with the season.

With an un-Christmas book, you're covered when the Christmas tree huggers in your life insist you should be merry and bright and reading a Christmas book. At the same time, it allows you to indulge your own dark Yuletide impulses...

I'm happy to say that the piece was picked up in the publishing newsletter Shelf Awareness today. It's comforting to know I'm not alone.