Not a Normal Book Review

I’ve always wanted to read A Christmas Carol, but I’m ashamed to say I never got round to it! I knew the story of course after watching the film many times, but I wanted to actually read the words and hold the book in my hands.

My nephew is studying the book for his GCSEs so it was an ideal chance to finally read it and help him out a little.

So, I put my massive TBR pile of psychological thrillers and steamy romances to one side, and prepared to go back to Victorian England.

I found a copy in a very old bookcase belonging to my mum. The copy belonged to my grandparents and hadn’t been touched in decades. When the earthy, vanilla smell hit me it took me back so many years to my grandparents front room which was lined with old bookcases full of books. The smell isn’t for everyone but I inhaled it, the memories flooded back of such happy times and I was transported back in time.I then realised that the print was tiny and even with my reading glasses on I couldn’t make out the words on the delicate pages. Now. I could have grabbed a copy on my Kindle or picked a new version in any bookshop, but it was really important to me to read the old one. The one my parents, grandparents and probably great grandparents had read before me. So, I got out my trusty magnifying lamp that I use for sewing and found a dusty magnifying glass just to be on the safe side!                                                       It It took me just over two hours to read and I loved every minute!I’m not a huge fan of Christmas and my family have called me Scrooge for years. I was glad to find out that Dickens has very similar opinions about Christmas to me. He believed that people should be full of goodwill and empathy every single day of the year, not just at Christmas. He also echoed another one of my beliefs, you don’t have to be rich to be happy.

What on earth would Charles Dickens think if he could see how commercialised Christmas has become since the Victorian age when he wrote this book?Did he have a premonition of how things would change in the future?How ironic that a book containing the Ghost of Christmas Past brought back so many memories. Unlike Scrooge they were happy ones.I hope I don’t meet the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be, he’ll find me shouting ‘Humbug’ when the decorations go up straight after Halloween and moaning in the supermarket when you have to queue for half an hour to buy a pint of milk!

Merry Christmas Everyone!