As a result of the annual Trent Sketch Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Pleasing Trent Sketch, otherwise known as the Sketchies, there will be no book rec today. Well, there is one: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (full text). I'm just not doing a big write up on it. It's a great little story that can be used as a gateway novel to the harder Dickens material. The imagery is haunting (appropriate, yet a cop out descriptor, I'm aware), and the overall result is a heartwarming, uplifting, kind of disturbing tale of Christmas joy just in time to deck your halls and toss another log on the fire. And you thought the St. Nicholas mythology of him stealing naughty children in a coal sack was evil; try showing a man his grave site early on Christmas Day to make him cough up the charity to the less fortunate. Dickens had quite a twisted perspective for a man now known for his extensive commitment to the Realist style. So Thursday is for Visual Achievement; Saturday is for Miscellaneous; and we ring in the new year on Tuesday with Print.

Labels: book rec, sketchies