Please forgive me, you guys.  I rarely do these “look what I got!!1!1!!” posts – rarely, maybe never? – but I was getting ready to clean up and put away everyone’s Christmas gifts and, well, I had such a spectacularly bookish Christmas that I can’t help but run here to share with the only people who truly understand me (you guys).

I mean, really:

After a year of restraining myself from book-buying, thanks to Project 24, all I really wanted for Christmas was BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS.  So that’s pretty much all I asked for – books and a few pieces of camera equipment I’ve been eyeing.  But really mostly books.  And my family and friends rallied spectacularly, as you can see.  Between Steve, my parents, my brother and my in-laws, I unwrapped:

• Comic Poems (Everyman’s Pocket Poets – I am slowly building a collection);
• Mango and Mimosa, by Suzanne St. Albans (Slightly Foxed, and out of print; I ordered this myself and then handed it off to Steve with instructions to give it to me for Christmas, and don’t tell me that’s cheating on Project 24, because la la la I can’t hear you);
• The School at the Chalet, by Elinor Brent-Dyer;
• The Fifth Queen, by Ford Madox Ford;
• I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith (beautiful deluxe hardcover to replace my unsatisfactory movie tie-in paperback);
• The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien (to match my Folio Society Silmarillion);
• The Odyssey, by Homer (the new Emily Wilson translation!);
• Devotions, by Mary Oliver (thanks, Mom!);
• Deep Thinkers, by Janet Mann (gorgeous book about my beloved cetaceans from my brother and sister-in-law);
• Obama, by Pete Souza (Steve said that Santa felt I might want some comfort reading);
• The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (to go with The Hobbit and The Silmarillion);
• A five-book boxed set of out of print Folio Society reissues of Jeeves books (another one I ordered myself and handed to Steve to wrap after some short lamenting about Project 24, which I snapped out of quickly when my friend Susan told me, “Baby, this is Jeeves.  You do what you need to do.”);
• Persuasion, by Jane Austen;
• Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen;
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Steve ordered my three favorites from the Folio Society, and please don’t @ me about Emma; it’s not in my top three and I AM OKAY WITH THAT);
• Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne; and
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by J.K. Rowling (the illustrated edition, which is just stunning and a gorgeous addition to the HP shelf).

Looking at it all written out like that, I recognize this list is truly absurd.  But it had been a very long year of self-discipline in the book-buying realm, and the thought of cozying up with these books this winter is delicious indeed.

Did Santa bring you anything to read this year?