Adorable!

We don’t buy Christmas gifts for our dogs, but we don’t begrudge those who do. Sometimes we dress our dogs in sweaters, but we know they’re not humans. Not buying them presents is our version of drawing the line.

Some of our friends think it’s odd that we’re readers. They think reading is as screwy as hanging a stocking for your Labrador. We’re getting those friends comic books for Christmas. We’re getting them comic books and we’re rolling our eyes.

Winter is getting to us. We miss sitting on front porches. We love the season, but we miss the taste of lemonade. Maybe we’re Grinches. Maybe Santa won’t come see us. Maybe we don’t believe in him anyways.

What do we believe in? The written word. And here we’ve gathered some reading to help you through the season. At the very least it’s a great escape from the in-laws. — Brian Allen Carr

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They had just returned to the United States. He thought that the immigration official at the border-control booth had looked at him skeptically when running his passport, even though he was a citizen. Maybe he looked like a terrorist. Fortunately the line had been long and he was passed through with his wife. It helped that she looked more securely like an American, he thought. She had blond hair and an open face. Everything seemed to go easier when she was at his side. They went down the escalator to the baggage claim area. They had their item each of carry-on luggage but had checked their larger bags. Once in the baggage claim area, his wife said that she was tired and went to take a seat on a row of chairs against the nearest wall of the vast room. He hadn’t slept well on this trip and should have been more tired than his wife, but he was filled with elation at the thought of being home, where he knew he would be able to sleep again and his bowels would return to normal.

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Book Stores Needed

Laredo, Texas is the biggest city in the United States without a bookstore (but there is a snowboard park near the Mexican border!). Maybe Laredo is afraid of too much information, or maybe it has more to do with the fact that people are shoplifting books like crazy, specifically The Bible, which probably is one of Texas’ biggest movers. Us, we’d sooner pull something from our dusty shelves than steal books from a store. But that doesn’t mean we’re not hoping for a few new titles this year. You can put Joseph Frank’s literary biography of Dostoevsky on our Christmas list. Add The Best European Fiction of 2010 to it, too. It’s hard to believe that books involving Monica Lewinsky are still coming out. But they are. Moving on, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne designs a fetus-shaped Christmas ornament and Stephen Burt recommends picking up 88-year-old Marie Ponsot’s latest collection of poetry. Her book is called Easy and it’s available everywhere, except Laredo. – Andrew Geer

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