• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Comment Policy
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Instagram
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Pretty Terrible

Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs

You are here: Home / Opinion / Books and Holidays

December 27, 2012

Books and Holidays

Books and Christmas just seem to go together around our house.

It seems that nearly every year, my husband gives me a book, and I naturally give him one in return.  Now it’s true that some years we’ve browsed and browsed and haven’t found anything the other would like, in which case gift cards were clearly the answer, but there’s nearly always a book under the tree for each of us each year.

Railsea

Railsea

My gift to him this year was China Mieville’s Railsea—he’s one of my husband’s favorite writers, and he’s been good enough the past two years to have a newish title out for the holidays—something released within 6 months.  This year, like last year, I got a biography: The Fry Chronicles, which is Stephen Fry’s tale of his years at Cambridge, where he met Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson.  I dove right in that morning—a complete report will be forthcoming.

The Fry Chronicles

The Fry Chronicles

Oddly enough, though, we never give our adult daughter books anymore.  Part of that is that, as a very busy college student, she doesn’t really have much time to read and currently has a pile of stuff she wants to get through.  The other part of it is that she’s just coming into her own tastes as a reader and it’s a bit difficult to know what to get her these days.

Not so when she was little—it was so much easier to choose books for a little girl.  Harry Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne of Green Gables—all the usual suspects.  Right now my big book choice issue is selecting reading material for my nephew, who will be 7 in a week or so.  Because he lives so far away, I have no idea what he has in his library.  And I also don’t know what the average 7 year old boy is reading these days—or what they ever did read.  I was never a 7 year old boy.  In the past I’ve given him Shel Silverstein and some Elephant and Piggie books and a few other things.  But I’m a bit stumped now. His parents are a bit conservative, so things like Captain Underpants are not approved of.

Which means a trip to the bookstore.  What a shame…

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Opinion Donna

Reader Interactions

Vacation’s All We Ever Wanted…
Linkspam, 12/28/12 Edition

Comments

  1. Ephemeral Pleasures says

    December 27, 2012 at 11:28 am

    I have a seven-year-old nephew too. I don’t think he’s an especially strong reader for his age, but his family does a lot of reading aloud. I often give the first book of a series and then hear that they work through the rest of them. This Christmas I sent the first of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. He’s also been enjoying the ThirtyNine Clues series. LM Montgomery’s Story Girl and Golden Road, judged So You Want To Be a Wizard “too scary” and it took a six month wait to make a second attempt, loves Harry Potter as far as his parents are willing to read at his age (book 5 I think), loves Swallows and Amazons, likes Pippi Longstocking.

    • donna says

      December 27, 2012 at 11:51 am

      Thanks for the suggestions. My nephew isn’t a strong reader either, but I know his parents read to him every night, so even something a little too difficult for him would still work. I’m just not sure what types of things he likes, or even if he knows, so all of those might be good choices. Thanks!

    • Ephemeral Pleasures says

      December 27, 2012 at 3:40 pm

      The first Christmas that my nephew was into reading, I did the rounds of the used book stores and my shelves and collected about twelve books – that year it was easy because I was pretty sure he hadn’t encountered any of it yet – and wrote up bookmarks like “Your mum liked this when she was a girl. There are some scary parts.” or “This copy used to belong to Uncle Joe” or “This is an old-fashioned story with kids as detectives, but some of the words and ideas in it are not okay nowadays” (referring to some casual racism in Enid Blyton)”. He loved the bookmarks and his parents appreciated the warnings.

      Oh! Also E. Nesbit and Edward Eager, if they’re reading aloud.

    • donna says

      December 27, 2012 at 4:59 pm

      Oooh, I like the bookmark idea. In fact, that gives me an idea–thanks!

  2. Rosary says

    December 27, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    What about the Percy Jackson books? Or any of Riordan’s books? I’m biased though I love mythology, and those books are full of mythology. Riordan, however, was writing them for his son, so they are attractive to boys.

    • donna says

      December 27, 2012 at 12:25 pm

      I’m not sure he’s ready for something like that. He’s really not a very strong reader, and I think those will be better when he’s a bit older and his skills are better.

  3. DrMM says

    December 28, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    I’ll suggest the diary of a wimpy kid books. My nephew started reading them when he was about eight or nine but his younger sister started reading them when she was much younger (she’s now 9 and he’s 12). I think the pictures do a lot to help make them interesting and easier to read for kids who either aren’t great readers or who don’t like reading that much. And for the record, my family is extremely conservative, so if my sister allows her kids to read them, I doubt your family would have an issue with them.

    • donna says

      December 28, 2012 at 11:08 pm

      Thank you! They’re one of the series of books I was hoping to look at to see if they’d work for him. It’s good to have another opinion 🙂

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Hello! I’m Natalie Luhrs. I write about books and culture and whatever else strikes my fancy. I have so many opinions.

I was a nominee for the Best Fan Writer Hugo in 2017.

Search

Upcoming Conventions

None, because pandemic. Woe!

Support Pretty Terrible

Updates by Email

Blog posts, cat pictures, and other random things in email? Sign up here.
 

 

2021 Reading Challenge

2021 Reading Challenge

2021 Reading Challenge
Natalie has read 6 books toward their goal of 50 books.
hide
6 of 50 (12%)
view books

Recently Read

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows
The Relentless Moon
A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking
Mischief
Architects of Memory
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water
Unconquerable Sun
Bury Your Dead
The Brutal Telling
A Rule Against Murder
The Cruelest Month
A Fatal Grace
The Angel of the Crows
One Summer in Paris
Still Life
The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion
Family for Beginners
The City We Became
Seven Sisters
The Harbors of the Sun


Natalie's favorite books »

Footer

Helpful Links

  • Home
  • About
  • Comment Policy
  • RSS - Posts

Archives

Looking for Something?

Recent Posts

  • Recent Reading, January 2021
  • Could I possibly catch a break now?
  • Some Positive News, For Once
  • Still Too Broken to Fix
  • Three Things Make A Post: August 17, 2020

Copyright © 2021 Natalie Luhrs · Pretty Happy On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in
"It's chaos, be kind." Michelle McNamara

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.