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Post by kunuma on Nov 8, 2008 15:49:38 GMT 1
Thinking of Christmas and pony books, does anyone have certain books that they always reread around Christmas time?? PS I shan't dare revisit this thread in case I am the only one that saaaaad!
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Post by Claire on Nov 8, 2008 21:07:32 GMT 1
The only books I read around the holidays time are the Noel and Henry ones. (hence the reading circle idea) Sometimes I also read them if Im poorly or need cheering up!
In the main tho it is the new books I get for christmas which I read oh and also get out my cookbooks for christmas food. You cant really call it reading tho, its more scraping ingredients off the pages ;D
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Post by zoe on Nov 8, 2008 21:49:47 GMT 1
I have only recently started buying and re reading the pony books of my childhood, I think I gave all my old ones away (WHY??) it seemed a good idea at the time! But over Christmas I always dust off my Bridget Jones books and The Time Travellers Wife (Audrey Niffenegger). I may well add some pony books this year!
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Post by susanb on Nov 9, 2008 0:05:52 GMT 1
My favorite Christmas read isn't a pony book, it's The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper....it's so perfectly right for the time of year, beginning just before Christmas and ending on Twelfth Night.
Other than that, like Claire, I tend to read new books...though I do admit to trying to find a book or two that is set at Christmas time...this year it'll be Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and Christmas Horse by Glenn Balch (maybe if the latter is excellent, it will become a yearly pony read!)
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Post by beswickcollector on Nov 10, 2008 17:40:30 GMT 1
I do not have a book I read especialy at Christmas but pony books remind me of Christmas. Growing up in the dull 1950s a pony book was my best present, I hated dolls. Christmas 1958 I unwrapped a book I still have with the tatty dustwrapper, The Silver Brumby. The strange animals, the wild country seemed magical to me in Britain where central heating still did not exist. I think this year to celebrate our 50yrs together I shall read The Silver Brumby.
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Post by Buster on Nov 10, 2008 20:27:11 GMT 1
Well I always watch the snowman and that one with the polar bear... and the Dr Who Xmas Special - That was probaly a very unhelpful comment
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Post by kunuma on Nov 10, 2008 20:46:17 GMT 1
susanb can you tell me what the Dark is Rising is about? I need another Christmas read (Ponies of Cuckoo Mill Farm and All Change are mine!)
mysteryarab, yes, why not fave Christmas TV classics - I am longing for them to reshow 'The Box of Delights'
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Post by darkhorse on Nov 10, 2008 21:30:34 GMT 1
Is the Dark is Rising the same as the film susanb?
kunuma I loved the Box of Delights too, it is very Christmassy. I like to read the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, that's another story which really makes you feel the Christmas spirit.
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Post by susanb on Nov 10, 2008 21:31:20 GMT 1
kunuma....this site will give you a good plot description: www.thelostland.com/dark.htmIt's technically the second book in a series of 5, though it's not really necessary to read the first (Over Sea, Under Stone) before reading DiR. Written 30 years before Harry Potter was a gleam in J.K. Rowling's eye, these books were multi-award winning here in the US....Dark is Rising was a Newbury Honor book, and one of the sequels, The Grey King, won the Newbury Award. (Cooper was born and raised in the area around Windsor, but lives in the US now, which is why her books were eligible for the Newbury). I have foisted (yes, I buy spare copies and make people read them) this book on friends and co-workers, men, women and children alike, and every single person has loved it....if ther e is higher praise than that for a book I've never heard of it! One warning....do not, under any circumstances, go to see the movie made of the book.....it was called The Seeker and completely destroyed the book....let's just say that the character of Will in the book, is very much an English boy, born and raised in a large, warm, loving family just outside Windsor Great Park. In the movie he's an American with an attitude and bickering brothers who have just moved to the UK with their generally dysfunctional family. Enough said.
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Post by susanb on Nov 10, 2008 21:37:50 GMT 1
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Post by Buster on Nov 10, 2008 23:17:17 GMT 1
The Grinch is a holiday favorite... Umm oh there was a book I used to read as a kid! It was about a family who adopted a border collie and he looked after their herd of turkeys, but when another dog told him about what people ate at christmas he took them away and hid them for a while... cant quite remember what happens whilest hes wandering around with his heard (like nobody would notice them!) but then he comes back after xmas, turkeys are saved all happy snappy and everyone has a lovely vegetarian xmas. Ooh and theres a book called Rover Saves Christmas which is nice
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Post by Claire on Nov 10, 2008 23:29:15 GMT 1
I saw some of that film susan and it was really boring. What a shame cos after that i thought the book wouldnt be worth reading and probably lots of other people did too. But after your advice will deffo look out for a copy.
I like the Grinch too. Have you ever seen the other film version of it (cartoon) its really funny and follows the book completely. I used to LOVE dr suess as a kid! But for me the ultimate Christmas movie has to be the Wizard of Oz. It used to be on every Christmas late afternoon and we would watch it after our Christmas dinner. Happy memories!
I like the sound of that book about the collie and the turkeys mysteryarab. Sounds like it would make a nice family film.
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Post by susanb on Nov 11, 2008 2:02:36 GMT 1
Arrgghh!!! Every copy of that horrible film should be burned (and the people who made it should be used as kindling). It's a book that is wonderful, and beloved of so many around the world, and the evil film is putting people off of it!!
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Post by kunuma on Nov 12, 2008 10:39:20 GMT 1
That series looks right up my street - brilliant - now all I need is to get hold of them, thanks susanb.
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Post by susanb on Nov 12, 2008 15:14:48 GMT 1
kunuma....great! As I said, you can skip Over Sea, Under Stone and go straight to The Dark is Rising for Christmas.....OS,US is more a straight children's adventure than fantasy/adventure....Cooper wrote it a number of years before she wrote the rest of the series, all of which books have a strong fantasy element, and often said she wishes she could go back and rewrite it altogether.
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