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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.
Oh, this week’s topic is easy.
I wish Christmas ghost stories were popular today.
In Victorian England in the 1800s, telling ghost stories was a widespread Christmas tradition. There were new entries in this genre published every year for families to enjoy, and some of them became classics that are still well-known today.
I try to keep that tradition going in my own small way by seeking out and hopefully also reviewing ghost stories every December, but I’d love it if they were easier to find and if more people saw the value in reading something just a little scary at this time of the year.
Since Christmas isn’t always an easy holiday for me to enjoy for reasons beyond the scope of this post, having something to look forward to during it makes a world of difference for me. I think it’s so emotionally healthy to give people a wide variety of ways to interact with holidays they struggle with. Not everything has to be cheerful and sugary sweet all of the time in order to be meaningful.
Oh, and one of the tags on this post is Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories because I actually reviewed quite a few classic ghost stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s on my blog a few years ago. Click on that tag to read my reviews if you wish to.

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
It’s hard to tell which books will become classics. Not every bestseller is actually well written or will continue to affect readers in twenty or fifty years. Likewise, I have no doubt there are some true gems out there that may have had middling to poor sales but will eventually be rediscovered and taught in classrooms all across the world.
This year I am grateful for…
War isn’t something I like to read about, so this still fits the original “books outside of my comfort zone” theme as well!
Other than regularly looking away from tv shows and films just before something important happens, I am every cat’s best friend. They would like nothing more than to follow me around and go on feline-friendly adventures while I would like nothing more than for them to pick a new human to bond with.
I feel like I recommend a lot of the same books here over and over again.
Here are the Halloween posts I’ve written for Top Ten Tuesday in previous years: