This is a classic and a half. It is also very sentimental to me. I have a copy of This book that was given to me by my mother that was given to her by my father. So the book is not the one pictured here. My copy as printed in the 1800's. I use to read this very book to my children during the holiday season, every single year. It is full of life and bitterness and awareness. Of course we all know the story.

Charles Dickens is a master author. He writes as if you are within two feet of him and he is in conversation right in your face. Of course, he is not but his legacy of language will never fade. His descriptions are powerful and in your face. The feeling that he portrays is priceless and gripping. His characters are more than worthwhile, they are three dimensional and even four. As you sit and read Dickens, you feel everything in front of you, and you are there, nowhere else.

His genius led me to seek out others of his works but I never quite got through them. Oliver Twist was one, and A Tale of Two Cities. I just wasn't quite as captivated. Eventually I put them down without finishing them. But A Christmas Carol? I must have read it 25 times; to my preschoolers, my children every year, and to myself for years. I even used it when I volunteered in my children's classroom and we were learning creative writing; his metaphors, foreshadowing,and similes are perfect. He is a master.

Though I've read this book more than any other I have ever read, never once was it a waste of time.