Merry Christmas Eve, everyone...

Growing up in my small town life, we waited until Christmas morning to open our presents each year. It usually descended into an anxiety-prone waiting period longing for that ONE. BIG. THING. I really, really wanted, and dropped endless hints about. Well, as a child, I don't think they were hints. I'm not the most subtle person in the world. Some of my friends would categorize me as a "manipulative bastard." I, myself, prefer to hear that phrase as "magnificent bastard." So there.

Later in life, the toys turned into books, and some of my fondest memories of Christmas in my teen and post-teen years (of which I am still a member, on most days) was of finding some big movie or comics-oriented tome on Christmas Day buried under the tree. The sheer weight and heft of the package was a dead giveaway, and I knew I was prepared to get lost in at least one of these books as company arrived, dinner was served, and my mom, begged, pleaded and implored me to join them all at the table. ONE MORE PAGE, MOM!

I definitely remember getting thoroughly engrossed in The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy around the time I was about 16 or so, and feeling monumentally gypped when none of the stories contained therein actually ended. The editors, in their monumental stupidity, though just presenting examples of Chester Gould's masterpiece was good enough, evidently feeling no one would bother to actually READ the stories. Similar books like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, another massive tome, were edited by the same people it seemed. Only the Nostalgia Press books seemed to offer complete stories and were deferential to the readers. But I digress...

I dearly remember discovering the Marx Brothers one Christmas Eve, due to the fine efforts of my brother, who gave me a paperback edition of the Marx Bros. at the Movies. The night was capped with late night screenings of Duck Soup and A Night At The Opera, courtesy of Channel 5 (then WNEW) in New York City. I was scarred for life, and the next year Why A Duck? graced the foot of our very fake Christmas tree.

Books became an important part of my life through these annual gift-giving frenzies, and remain so this day. The other day when I was in Borders finishing up my Christmas shopping, a woman was trolling the store, trying to gently coerce shoppers into looking at the Sony Reader, an electronic device that contains books. She stepped clear of me at least three times, undoubtedly due to the perpetual scowl on my face that warns passers-by to keep at least three steps away at all times and frightens small children and dogs (cats, however, ADORE me). If asked, I would have told her, in no uncertain terms, that that "thing," wasn't a book, nor was its clunky and chunky looking Soviet-era counterpoint, the Amazon Kindle. I know, I know...you have one and you love it. Good for you. But without the paper, without the slick dustjacket or smooth, soft feel of a matte finish trade paperback cover in my hands, without the enjoyable sensation of physically turning the page and seeing what comes next, it's not a book. I hate to keep killing trees, but I'll never buy one of these things. Books are an important possession in my life, quite possibly the only one I couldn't do without. Keep your electronic toys, your clothes, your liquor and food. Books are my only vice, and one I can totally live with.

This year, I found a book that brought all of that back into perspective to me. It's a new version of The Comics: The Complete Collection by Brian Walker, combining both pricey volumes (The Comics Before 1945, The Comics After 1945) into one economically feasible book. I picked it up for 20 bucks, and it's massive, at least 9x12" and weighing in at 668 pages. It's how I intend to spend at least part of my Christmas Day, lost in a book about the history of comic strips, my own little time machine, taking me back to much happier, family-filled days, when holiday stress meant something else entirely.

May your Christmas Eve and Day be filled with books.

Comments

[Pam]

I agree absolutly! Books are one of the wonderful things in life! I got a Charles Dickens Works made around 1900, heavy leatherbound-books with the titels printed in gold, printed in a kind of typwrite most today people can`t even read anymore. You need two hands to read them, I love them, cause reading Dickens from them I got that special timetravelfeeling...there is a old saying from the moors..if you got books, you got friends every time you need!
May books rule for ever!

[Elessa]

i haven't figured out the attraction for the kindle. yes, i spend time reading indepth research websites with "page after page" of material. but when i want to read a book i want that book to be in my lap with paper pages to be turned. i don't care if it is fiction or nonfiction, hardback or paperback, i love books.

[Jim Kingman]

Burn all the Kindles! And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Gary.