So, it's Christmas - you'll soon be snuggled by the fire, under a blanket, sleepy after a morning of overeating and ready to enjoy a good book on your new or old Amazon Kindle.
Well, whether it's your standard Christmas day or not, since you clicked on the title above, you're clearly the focus of this Venn diagram of "Christmas fans" and "avid Kindle users."
To make sure your eReader is packed with words, stories, and poems, we've compiled a list of some of the most valuable holiday tales. There are new and old works, classics and classes, children's stories and adult-only affairs, novels, short films, poems, and even non-fiction.
Before asking: "where is X? It's a classic!" or exclaim, "This author has clearly never heard of Y, the uneducated bully!" we intentionally keep the classics to a minimum. So no, you won't find "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" or "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" here.
If you don't already have an e-reader, you can find a ranking of Amazon's best Kindles here. Depending on when you're reading this list, you may still have time to receive one before the big day...or maybe not.
Oh, and you might be wondering why we share links to the books in this article when you can't read it on a Kindle. Well, if you buy the books on the Amazon website, you can set them to download automatically the next time your eReader connects to the web. We want to save you time!
The best Christmas readings
Charles Dickens Christmas Carol
We know it, we know it: we said in the introduction “we intentionally keep the classic tales to a minimum,” and we still are! But we also want to avoid the wrath of the entire internet, which is why we keep this classic Christmas classic on the list; it also works well with the next entry on our list.
A Christmas carol is possibly the ultimate holiday story. Some people even attribute the popularity of Christmas to this classic Charles Dickens novel. Originally published in 1843, it has certainly seen its fair share of adaptations and performances.
Fortunately, as a classic text, it is quite easy to retrieve for free. You can find it in the Amazon US Kindle Store here for just a dollar or here for free if you have Kindle Unlimited, and in the Amazon US Kindle Store Free here.
Charles Dickens: A Life of Claire Tomalin
Since A Christmas Carol is such a popular Christmas text, you might want to know more about the author, his life, and what prompted him to write about three of the three grumpy and creepy in the first place. We have what you need.
This Claire Tomalin bio comes highly recommended, based on her reviews on Amazon, and is written by someone who has also posted similar explorations of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen. This book will help you better understand the famous and troubled storyteller.
You will have to pay for this book as it is not nearly 200 years old, but that's fair. You can pick it up for € 12.99 at the Amazon US Kindle store here, or for just € 4.99 at the Amazon US Kindle store here. Oh, but Audible listeners will find it free on this service.
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
The first word of this classic novel is literally "Christmas."
This is another classic and older novel (fiancee, modern novels are coming) and tells the story of four sisters who grew up in XNUMXth century America. Of course, it's not as festive as A Christmas Carol, not that any story can claim that title over the Dickens classic, but it makes good alternative reading.
Unlike Dickens's text, Little Women isn't free for Kindle readers, but it's pretty close. You can pick it up at the Amazon US Kindle Store for just over a dollar here, or at the Amazon US Kindle Store for less than € 1 here.
Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Now let's move on to this author's favorite Christmas novel, a story prized for its cynicism and dry humor, but also for its place among the modern classics of American literature.
The Corrections follows members of a dysfunctional family as they gather for one last Christmas family reunion, which is why this book deserves a spot on this list. Family members are trying to make corrections in their lives that divert them from dark paths, which is why the book deserves its title.
It is true that it is a very long read and there is much interwoven between the stories of different characters; According to director Noah Baumbach, the complexity of the story is what caused a partially filmed television adaptation to abort, but if you have many hours to start a fire, this Kindle book may be for you.
You can find the book for € 12.99 in the US Kindle store here or for just € 3.99 in the UK Kindle store here, and in both regions, Audible users can get the audiobook for free.
(*two*)
(Image credit: Amazon)Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express
People are often quite shocked when we tell them that the popular 2004 movie starring Tom Hanks, and a motion capture creepy enough to keep you awake for several days, is actually an adaptation of a 1985 children's book. .
It's a very young children's book, and while the Kindle version has some lovely illustrations, you may not get the full effect of this Christmas classic due to the black and white nature of e-reader screens.
Unfortunately, we can't find The Polar Express in the UK Kindle store, but you can pick it up from the US Kindle store here for € 9.99.
Letters from Santa Claus by JRR Tolkien
Yes, Tolkien has written things outside of the Lord of the Rings universe and also for very young readers. It's pretty safe to say that most fans of the author's well-known works are unfamiliar with Tolkien's festive collection of letters.
You see, Tolkien's family received letters from Santa Claus - he is Santa Claus, for all you American readers - describing life at the North Pole in detail, with testimonials from polar bears and elves, and stories of wars with goblins.. wait, are we sure this isn't happening in Middle-earth?
The 23 years of notes were compiled in Letters from Santa Claus and published in the 1970s after Tolkien's death. The Kindle edition also includes images of the letters, which were written with the famous author's trembling hand.
You can get the letter collection in the US from the Kindle store here, which will cost you € 3.99, or in the UK from the Kindle store here, for € 2.99. Both regions also have physical copies available, which could be a great gift for any Tolkien fan you know.
The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
Don't buy this book expecting it to start with the phrase "It was Christmas Eve"; it's a very different story than this (think A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore). No, it's not the fun, relaxing read you'd expect. And yes, we've descended into the "darker holiday reads" section of this list.
The Night Before Christmas is a Russian story inspired by folklore from the 1830s about a blacksmith's battle with the devil. Apparently it is quite funny and cheerful, but more than one mouse moves in this story. Oh, and it's not too short, perfect for a Christmas Eve reading.
You can find The Night Before Christmas in the Amazon US store here for just € 2,50 and in the Amazon UK store here for € 3,99.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
There is no Christmas without murder and there is no murder story like the ones written by Agatha Christie, the monarch of the genre.
Given that Christie has written 33 novels, two plays, and countless short stories featuring her most popular character, it's very likely that one of them will be set around Christmas: in this one, the Belgian with the mustache must solve a murder... but this one time at Christmas.
Christie turns 'sleigh bells' into 'bells' with this one (I promise, it took me a long time trying to think of a good Christmas murder pun and a tainted search history later, that's what you get. You're welcome . ).
You can purchase the book for € 9.99 from the US Kindle Store here; In the UK it's free here if you have Kindle Unlimited, or € 3.99 if you don't. In both regions, it's also on Audible.
Sir Gauvain and the Green Knight of Anon, translated by various
This classic Arthurian tale received a meh film adaptation this year that strayed a lot from the original material. The original poem was written in the XNUMXth century, and although scholars still don't know who the author was, the work has been translated from Old English on several occasions by big names like Simon Armitage, JRR Tolkien, and Jessie. Weston.
The poem, although some translations are presented in prose, tells the story of an overwhelmed knight of the round table, who during a winter feast bit off more than he could chew by accepting a challenge from the titular green knight that implied he only had one. . year to live.
As we said, there are many translations and some are not available in various regions, so we recommend that you shop around to find a version that interests you. The Armitage, Tolkien, and Weston versions are apparently the most popular and are translated by a poet, novelist, and scholar respectively; these three alone are likely to provide alternative interpretations of the same story.
Visit the US Kindle Store here for different versions ranging from € 1 to € 10, and the UK Kindle Store here for versions between € 5 and € 10.