A few years ago Constant Reader told me about the tradition of giving books for gifts at Christmas, or "jolabokaflod", and this year I learned more about it in The Christmas Book Flood, by Emily Kilgore, with pictures by Kitty Moss. It started during WWII, in Iceland. Pretty much everything was rationed but paper. Publishing houses would print out a lot of books once a year, in October, encouraging folks to buy them for gifts. Which they did, and soon folks were curled up in front of the fire, on Christmas Eve, reading. It continues to this day, and is spreading to other countries. Seems like a fine idea to me! :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog