from under the tree

I still don't know who sponsored me for SantaThing, but I'm guessing it's someone in this room. So thank you!

I loved how the algorithm worked. I shopped for Collectorator and aviddiva shopped for me.

Lorranan told me there was a mix-up and I got three books, the balance courtesy of LT.

Aviddiva found the perfect book for me - She knows I have 'a thing' for book covers, and old literature, and picked Jane Austen Cover to Cover. Is that genius or what?

I also got The Secret of the Village Fool, which also suits me down to the ground. I just finished an adult book about brave anti-holocaust workers. This is a picture book telling about a rescue in Poland, and has photos of the real people on the last few pages.

I also got Just So Stories, which I thought was catalogued already, but my bad, isn't. So I gave the extra copy to a co-worker grandma eager to read the stories to her grands. But someone noticed my love for Rudyard Kipling. I really really enjoyed helping with his Legacy Library last year.

My daughter was pleased as anything to have found a book for me that I hadn't known about yet. She gave me a woman's shed, which my grandson and I are poring over for ideas for the coming year.

>1 2wonderY: Sounds like you received a good haul!

My dad gave me two books from my wishlist, Opulent Oceans and A Sea of Words. He also ordered a lovely book, Patrick O'Brian's Navy. It's full of beautiful maritime paintings and great information. Unfortunately, it came from a seller who smokes, so I'm going to have to return it.

I had fun picking for majkia and three other people (I snagged a couple of SantaThing orphans). Both of my Santas, Talisker and hermeneutics, made excellent choices. In fact, Talisker managed to pick a book of which I hadn't heard, Trying Leviathan. Hermeneutics' choices were excellent: Ghostwritten; Dhalgren; A Canticle for Leibowitz; and, The Glass Bead Game. Where to start?

My dad also gave me an Amazon gift card. I'm trying to wait to use it, but I don't think I'll be successful.

Season's greetings, everyone, and happy reading in 2015 and beyond.

Ooh. I'll particularly be interested in your reviews of Opulent Oceans and Trying Leviathan.

I enjoyed the selections of my SecretSanta. Interesting, books I haven't read but might like to try, yet probably wouldn't have purchased on my own. I have to wonder about the algorithm though. My SecretSanta has no books cataloged and belongs to no groups, but apparently is active on the site because she(?) responded to my thank you right away. Curiouser and curiouser.

I haven't heard from the two I picked for. I did the best I could, but one never knows.

My SantaThing books are we were liars, The Cuckoo's Calling and A Natural History of Ghosts.

I didn't participate in SantaThing this year, as things looked very tight at the sign up time. :(

My son gave me two lovely books, Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus (illustrated by Bernie Wrightson), and a Ben Hur movie souvenir program from 1959!

Dear Fuzzi >5 fuzzi: for what's it worth, I will sponsor you next year if you still need it. I have done a few totally anonymous SantaThings
But it is always more FUN to give to someone you know! I really feel I know you through our mutual love of Felis silvestris catus.

Or Puddy Tats as most of us know them :-)

Guido.

>7 guido47: bless your heart, and thank you for your generosity!

After the date for SantaThing had passed, my employer announced that bonus checks would be forthcoming...something that I did not expect!

And you are correct, it's more fun, in a sense, when you know the person who will be receiving your gift. :)

>6 Collectorator: Ha! I wonder if the matches are truly made blindly. Ain't that somethin'?

Thank you! I enjoyed the whole process.

I thoroughly enjoyed picking for you, 2wonderY, and bought several books for myself that I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't been researching for you. I should send you a list of books that I didn't get!

My Santa, Casvelyn, is also a member of this group, and did a wonderful job picking for me! I'm currently enjoying Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, and looking forward to Miss Buncle's Book and Atmospheric Disturbances ( a substitute for The Victorian Chaise Longue, which was back-ordered, but which I will now have to find at the library, as it looks very interesting.) I think the Algorithm knows what it is doing.

Oh yes, let's talk about the ones that got away too. More TBRs!!!

2wonderY asked for something beautiful, so I was looking at (mostly) tattered but lovely illustrators. Some of the titles that "got away" (or went into my library) included Elizabeth Shippen Green by Paul Giambarba, The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: the life and Work of Alice C. Morse, The Red Rose Girls, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, The Sleeper and the Spindle which is a beautifully illustrated edition of Neil Gaiman's latest, and some others which have been mentioned here in other threads.

The only problem I've found in playing Santa for TBSL members (I have done it in the past) is that the books you most want to give are often not available new in the editions you would like to send!

>12 aviddiva: Wow! You really did your homework! All spectacular choices.

>4 MrsLee: You need to fix the link to we are liars. Oh - I see it hasn't been entered yet.

>13 2wonderY: Nope, you were right, it needed fixing. That's what comes of trying to read book titles in the dark when you are tired. :) We WERE liars, not we ARE liars. A much more hopeful title. LOL

>13 2wonderY: Really, I think SantaThing is a great excuse to look for books I would like to read myself but wouldn't otherwise take the time to search out.

I got a fabulous SantaThing Christmas card from aviddiva !! I'll have to scan it. It is a fold-out row of old Christmas titles.

Other than that, my SIL let me download half a dozen audio books and my daughter gave me a childrens picture book, Finding Winnie, the true story of Winnie the Pooh.

So, what did you find under your tree?

Well, speaking of aviddiva, I got a pile of SantaThing books selected by her, and I am absolutely delighted with them!

SylviaC , I am so glad you liked your books! (I was tempted to buy a copy of Toothpick for myself, because it looked fascinating.) 2wonderY , I thought of this group immediately when I saw those Christmas cards. I actually own one of the books (The Birds' Christmas Carol) in the edition shown on the card. The others, I just covet.

>18 aviddiva: They all appeal to me, but The Toothpick is the one I'm most excited about. I've always been very lucky with my SantaThing books, but I think this is my favourite batch. It is so obvious that you really considered my interests, and of course it was nice to see a familiar name on the packing slips.

Santa brought me some lovely romances from my SantaThing, and a beautiful illustrated copy of Longfellow, the Complete Poetical Works from 1884. There is controversy in our family about whether or not he is a relative on my mother's side.

Ah, I own another of Henry Petroski's titles - To Engineer is Human. But I've not read it.

Here's the Christmas card from aviddiva



Ain't it grand?

>22 2wonderY: Lovely! What a terrific idea for a card.

>22 2wonderY: lovely card!

None of my "under the tree" were TBSL...

Sham Was Second Best
The Case for a Creator
The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, volume 5

...but I'm still very happy with them!

Isn't Louis L'Amour old enough to be a bit shabby? Oh, I see he just started getting published in 1950. He's still pretty old fashioned.

>25 2wonderY: some of his stories date back to the 40's, as he was a pulp fiction writer.

Edit: his first published stories date back to 1937.

> 22 Indeed. Lovely card.

I received:
Honeydew: Stories
The Chequer Board TBSL
Around the World With Auntie Mame TBSL
Don Camillo TBSL

ETA: pretty sure Don Camillo is TBSL.

>27 MDGentleReader: The Chequer Board is one of my favourite Nevil Shute books, and he is one of my favourite authors, so it is pretty high on my list of all-time favourites.

>28 SylviaC: Guess I should bump The Chequer Board up on Mt TBR. So far, Trustee From the Toolroom is my favorite of his. Well, of the ones I remember. I read these along with my Dad, who would read every book by an author, so I've probably read it. I did skip on the Beach though, and did not finish Beyond the Black Stump. He was very realistic in his characterizations - I did not see how there could be a good outcome for the main characters.

Beyond the Black Stump was strange.

>30 SylviaC: I thought he captured the complete incomprehension that folks from one culture can have of folks from another culture's actions very well. There are bits from that book that have stayed with me.

>27 MDGentleReader: Don Camillo is wonderful! I love the original Auntie Mame book, that one is good too, but IMO not as delightful as the original.

>30 SylviaC: Strange but wonderful.

>29 MDGentleReader: I've decided I'm due for a Shute reread. I agree wholeheartedly on Trustee from the Toolroom. Chequer board which I just reread is certainly in the running for second.

Daughter is learning to use my LT account to check for books I want and books I already have.

Under the tree this year, I found a Meredith Nicholson title, The Little Brown Jug at Kildare.

So far, I'm not entirely enchanted, but I am intrigued. Two young men, best friends from college days. One insanely rich and bored. The other a college professor. They are frankly affectionate with each other. The rich man is looking for adventure, but rejects physical challenges, instead heading to New Orleans to seek a young woman he caught a glimpse of from a train window.

Nicholson is always entertaining, but his plots sometimes leave you wondering.

Daughter gifted me with religious fiction this year. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.

Grands gave me a pendant engraved with my totem animal - a river otter.

I received lovely new copies of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum. :)

I had rather a misfire this Christmas. It was pretty funny. One boy gave me some skull mugs (I like skeletons, but would rather not add to all the miscellany in my house) and since I had asked for silly socks, some slipper socks, which I had mentioned the night before to them that I could not wear due to my foot pain. This was after the gift was wrapped. Poor dears. The other son gave me a French press coffee pot. Which I already have. He thought I wanted to replace mine because when he looked at my Amazon wishlist, due to the confusing way Amazon does them, he mistakenly was looking at my daughter-in-law's list and that's what she wanted. I was admiring it, thinking it was familiar, but why? She realized it was the one on her list. After a good laugh, I gave it to her.

Anyway, my favorite part of the gifting is the time spent together as a family opening gifts. What's inside isn't as important to me, so we had a lovely morning being together. I told them their presence was my present.

We had a second Christmas today as younger daughter and SIL are bringing baby around to all the relatives. They gave us a few hours on the way to presenting baby to 95 year old great grandmama. Theia is engaging with others but mostly from the safety of mama’s lap.

Daughter does materials testing, I found an old manual, amusingly titled Beat it, Burn it, Drown it.

I received a TBSL book from my friend Moira, a pony story called Two lost on Dartmoor. It has lovely illustrations and I'm looking forward to reading it.

>35 2wonderY: thanks for reviving this thread!

I received three book gifts for Christmas, Paddington Classic Adventures Box Set:, E. B. White Box Set:, and Prince Valiant Vol. 16: 1967-1968.

I just purchased a gift for me The Black Mountain by Rex Stout. A hardcover edition to replace my worn out paperback. I hope it's in decent condition. All the other hardcovers were over $150, this one was about $10.

>40 fuzzi: I drooled over the Prince Valiants on harrygbutler thread.

>42 BonnieJune54: that's what got me in deep...Harry's thread.

I've collected the Prince Valiant books up to volume 16. Trust me, I did NOT pay full price...Ebay and Hamiltonbook.com are great resources.

>43 fuzzi: Always happy to help! :-)

>42 BonnieJune54: Glad you liked them, Bonnie! I'm caught up in acquisitions, as I got the latest, volume 18, for 1971-1972, as a Christmas gift, and I'm planning to get back to reading more of them this year, so they should reappear on my thread, too.

No actually tattered books for Christmas, but I did get two reprints of mysteries first published in 1933, and I've been told there are some issues of the pulp magazine Argosy from the early 1930s on the way that didn't quite make it for Christmas.

Not sure if the Gardens & Books group has a gifted books thread, so I'll post here. A co-worker gave me Composting: Bob's Basics. She gets me! Says she got another copy for her grandpa. She tells great stories about him and his chickens.

>45 2wonderY: argh, book bullet...

Don’t buy it; it’s pretty basic for those of us with (ahem) much experience.

>47 2wonderY: thanks for the heads-up. I started reading about composting about 30 years ago, and still have some of my Rodale books (they had a book club at one point), so I don't need a beginner's book.

>48 fuzzi: Makes me smile. My grandma was a Rodale devotee. Matter of fact, I still have the copy of The Synonym Finder that she gave me as a gift when I was a third grader. I read it like a novel then. Still use it now!

Woo! I did a bit of searching and found the composting booklet that was such a help to me: Make Compost in 14 Days.

I'm sort of hoping it's sitting in a box somewhere, it was such a great resource.

Christmas gift books:
TBSL: Miss Mole - really enjoyed this, will re-read
Other: A Terrible, Horrible No Good Year, I kept reading along bits the day I received it
Roots and Reflections
Nature's Best Hope
The Whole Person in a Broken World