The CHRISTMAS TREE MINOR CRISIS Tag |

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Crazy to see people doing the tag. Book tube is a nice little community. Best wishes and happy reading from Lancashire, England.

[@alex_unabridged]

Great tag, Nigel! BookTube is a wonderful little community indeed. All the best and happy reading to you too, from the edge of the Peak District (just 'down the road' from you really, in the grand scheme of things!) 😀

[@RaynorReadsStuff]

Great tag, I’m just about to do this one. Loved your choices. I think The Name of the Rose is fabulous and I’m maybe due for a reread and I love MR James’ ghost stories. Reading them now in fact. Great video Alex 😊

[@alex_unabridged]

Cheers, Debs 😊Will look forward to your responses! I've read _The Name of the Rose_ a couple of times over the years, and watched the film a few times too. I always feel like I'd get a hell of a lot from re-reading any of Eco's books, but they're quite time-consuming for me as they're so densely packed with fascinating information, and they send me down too many rabbit holes! Happy reading of the M. R. James stories - I'll be diving into a couple on Christmas Eve, as is my tradition 😉

[@troytradup]

I think it's good we're separated by an ocean. Otherwise, you would definitely receive costumed visits from me three consecutive nights every Christmas ... in which I would make you choose between reading Dickens or going cage-diving with me. 🦈🎅

[@alex_unabridged]

Aw, I wish there wasn't an ocean separating us - costumed visits would be hilarious! I can imagine you'd make a great Ghost of Christmas Present 😂 However you don't need to do any work in making me choose between those two options. You'd think I might feel like I'm stuck between the devil and deep blue sea -- a most accurate idiom if ever there was one 😉 -- but it's actually a very simple choice. Chuck wins easily!

[@troytradup]

@@alex_unabridged I knew he would.

[@arockinsamsara]

_The Name of the Rose_ sounds amazing, thanks for that! Also, I just read a Christmas ghost story today (a novella by Kim Newman called, funnily enough, _A Christmas Ghost Story)_ and a major part of the story was the BBC "A Ghost Story for Christmas" movies, though the novella was referencing the original run, 1971 - 1978, the first five of which were based on M. R. James stories. It looks like that in the revival of the series, the ones 2005 - 2022 were also M. R. James adaptations. Regardless, I have read a number of M. R. James's stories, but not _The Mezzotint._ I think I have only read his stories as collected in anthologies, but I have never read a proper collection of just his stories. I suppose some proper collections of his should be added to the list...

[@tyghe_bright]

The Name of the Rose is absolutely amazing. I read it a few times in the 90s. (I've watched the movie with Sean Connery a few times, too. It's also good, but weird casting.) I also like many of Eco's essays, such as his writings on semiotics... and of course, How to Spot a Fascist is essential reading.

[@alex_unabridged]

Oh yeah, I think you might really enjoy _The Name of the Rose_ -- Eco's work is fantastic in general. You'd might on with a lot of his stuff, both fiction and non-fiction. _Foucault's Pendulum_ is my favourite of his, but _The Name of the Rose_ is a close second. The Kim Newman novella sounds fun, I'll have to check that out! And yes, a collection of M. R. James stories is a must! _Ghost Stories of an Antiquary_ is available free on Project Gutenberg seeing as his stuff is out of copyright now. _The Mezzotint_ is in there. There are a couple of other collections on PG too if you get a taste for his stories 😉

[@alex_unabridged]

@@tyghe_bright I've seen the movie a few times too - I really like it, but I agree it's strange casting! Love Eco's essays too 👍