Top Ten Tuesday: Dear Santa, Please Bring Me All the Books

This week’s TTT is about the books we’ve asked for this Christmas. Basically all I ever ask for is books, so this list is very easy to write. I tend to ask for the kind of books I might not buy for myself, like big non-fiction works or collections, so my Christmas books seem like more of a treat. I have developed this system over many years of politely demanding books for Christmas…

Somebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury by Matt Richards
I love a good music biography and I was brought up listening to Queen, so I’m looking forward to reading this. Personally, I think I prefer biographies to autobiographies, as I like to read about an artist’s wider cultural impact and, when that’s written by the artist, it sounds a bit annoying. Also, this is a total brick, so I’m excited.

Shrill by Lindy West
Something I’ve been wanting to read for ages; I am a bit obsessed with Lindy West on Twitter, and the excerpts of this I’ve read have been excellent.

Saga, Volumes 4-6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
I really like the space madness of this series, although I continue to be perturbed by the amount of nudity people seem to think is necessary in a comic…

Jane Austen, The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly
I’m not sure I’ll be convinced that Austen was actually a radical, but, as a massive fan of her novels, I’m interested to read Kelly’s argument. Also, my husband has bough me a Jane cuddly toy for Christmas, to be friends with the Emily Dickinson one I already have. Because I am cool.

Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe
I’ve seen Pascoe on a few comedy panel shows and she’s very funny, so I hope this will be something that makes me laugh, given that most of my reading produces a very different effect.

Collected Stories by Shirley Jackson
I’ve read and taught quite a few of Jackson’s stories and they are all superb, so I’m happy that I will soon be the owner of a bigger collection.

Stories Volume 1 by Ray Bradbury
As with Jackson, I’m a fan of Bradbury’s short fiction. This book is enormous and also very pretty. My birthday’s in January so I’ll be requesting volume 2 then.

Gangsta Granny by David Walliams
My mum is getting me a boxset of all Walliam’s children’s books; I’ve heard endless good things about these from my students and other children, and I’m interested to see whether Walliams merits the “new Roald Dahl” tag he’s been given.

In non-book but still-bookish news, besides this beautiful Jane Austen toy, I have, I think, also convinced my husband to buy me this beauteous Edgar Allen Poe-ka dotted scarf, which is both a great pun and a lovely accessory.