What's on everyone's list this year? I can never figure out what I want, as I'm generally happy with what I have already. However, this 25 year old bottle of The Macallan caught my eye. I floated the idea to my daughter, but her response led me to believe the scotch would not be forthcoming: https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/macallan-25/#!/product/ What about the rest of you? Writerly gifts? Technology? World Peace?
Perhaps you should do the reddit secret santa and put that on your wishlist. I don't really have anything in particular I'm really wishing for. Generally if there's something I really want, I buy it. And if I don't, it's usually because it's too expensive, so it would still be too expensive this time of year. I have been wanting Cards Against Humanity -- and to have people over to play it. I think that my husband got it for me for Christmas, but I'm not certain. And there are always a few books on my wishlist. What I'd like is a super awesome vacation -- like to the Galapagos Islands, Patagonia, Australia... Or just a luxury resort in the Caribbean. But I don't think I'm getting any of those for Christmas. Maybe one day.
I've spent the last 10+ years trying to convince my family that Christmas presents from and to adults don't make sense. If I can prove that gift cards aren't really gifts, I'll be able to move on to my contention that Thanksgiving dinner need not be turkey with all the trimmings.
I successfully removed presents from our family Christmas years ago and it's been a blessing ever since. A non-present Christmas is fantastic. The get-together is all that really matters. You gotta do it. And yes, gift cards are not gifts. They are 'I couldn't be bothered thinking of anything good' certificates.
A solid gold statue of myself. Hopefully with the plaque 'He Saved Us All'. Failing that, a new book and (honestly) just some new clothing. That's all I want this year.
Having spent a significant sum in total on my kids' Christmas as well as the rest of the nonsense that goes with it (who eats any of this shit at any other time of year?) I happened upon Orwell's Down and Out in Paris & London and promptly instructed my missus to get it for me. Not bad at £3.99. Easily pleased, me. @Lemex, surely a plaque would be better than any sort of plague?
Oh my, well, that's a funny typo. Changed. Also, Down and Out is a really good book - very interesting. Are you interested in Orwell's Socialism, because that's sort of where it is born.
I hate to be a Scrooge, but in all honesty my wish is that when I have moved to New Zealand next year I can ignore Christmas and go and sit on the beach instead.
Only insofar as it is a candid account of his experiences as an impoverished young writer and I suppose, by extension, his socialist views. Em. . . In other words, I know what the blurb told me.
I recently bought what I thought was 1984, only to be extremely pissed off at myself for not reading the eBay posting a little more carefully. It was the York Notes, written to accompany the text.
I want someone else to do the cooking. I also want a really sweet bass guitar and a place to put it - I don't have room for the guitars I have already!
Oh dear! That's made all the worse by the fact that Nineteen Eighty-Four is a damn fine novel! One of my favourites.
I'll pick up a copy soon. It's the novel of his that I'm most eager to read. Sorry for the thread-jack people. As you were. . .
Well, now that Christmas is over, I can say I got what I wanted. Some nice, new clothing, more chocolate than I know what to do with (I actually don't eat a lot of chocolate - It's not that I don't like it, it just doesn't interest me), the complete Dylan Thomas short stories that I'm thinking of recording for YouTube as a kind of project for myself, and the two David Thorne books - the man is a comedic genius and I urge everyone to check him out.
Honestly, I would have liked to have one of my bills paid ha ha. No but seriously, many of you know that money has been a persistent issue in my life for the last year. Even though I am working and have been promoted, it's as though I still can't manage to come out ahead. I've been broke for the last 4 paychecks (i.e. since I got promoted) and I can't figure out why. No, I know well what happened--bills, food, a little debt here and there, gas... Money has been an unnecessary bone of contention within my household for the last few weeks now, so it would have been nice to not to have to partition my entire paycheck. Maybe I could have done some Christmas shopping or taken my mom to dinner for her birthday (despite the fact that she is the reason my bank accounts been at zero.) It's not as bad as I make it sound, but it does suck not having "vegetarian food" at home to eat for lunch or dinner and not being able to buy any without going over my credit limit (cuz I still haven't gotten to pay that back because my financial plans have again taken a back burner to my mom's plans and I, again, had no real say). Otherwise a simple peace of mind, a day of silence, some personal space. This is what I've wanted this season.
Well, with my inevitable Christmas Waterstones vouchers, I got myself a copy of The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore - a new translation for me, a full one this time when I had only ever read selected poems of it before, and The Complete Poems of Robert Frost, the nice vintage paperback edition. I'm writing on Robert Frost for my MA dissertation, and besides, I want a 'working' copy of his complete poems too. My other Frost collection is his Library of America collection, which is really far too precious to carry around with me every day.
