fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsA few things here before we get going.

Don’t forget to enter our “Anticipate the Best of 2010″ contest from two weeks ago. The winner will be announced next week.

Congratulations to Karen Wester Newton for winning the book of her choice from our stacks on last week’s Thoughtful Thursday. I’m considering asking for an iPad for a birthday present next year. We’ll see how well e-books and tree books get along. Karen, contact us to let us know what book you want.

Now, I’m a professor, and this is finals week. Do you know what that means? I am tired. I am cranky. I have already burned through one grading pen, and I have three classes left to grade. This makes me cranky when I read. And with the time of year and the cold and snow and ice and sleet and the stupid guy ahead of me thinking he can make a 90 degree turn at 45 miles an hour on a sheet of ice and fishtailing all over the road, I am not quite in the holiday spirit.

So along those lines, I’ve been thinking about holidays in literature and how stereotypical I find them.  If I read one more midwinter festival where everyone either a. sits around in the dark all night or b. sits around the fireplace with a burning fire all night, I might stab myself in the eyeball with an icicle.

So, dear readers, I turn to you for salvation from icy blindness and grinchy woe. What are the most interesting holiday traditions you’ve read about in fantasy? The most creative holiday will win you a book of your choices from our stacks. Bonus points if you make me shoot egg-nog out my nose from laughing.

Author

  • Ruth Arnell

    RUTH ARNELL (on FanLit's staff January 2009 — August 2013) earned a Ph.D. in political science and is a college professor in Idaho. From a young age she has maxed out her library card the way some people do credit cards. Ruth started reading fantasy with A Wrinkle in Time and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — books that still occupy an honored spot on her bookshelf today. Ruth and her husband have a young son, but their house is actually presided over by a flame-point Siamese who answers, sometimes, to the name of Griffon.