Alas, for my shame. This is my choice for my Bad Reader category in 2024- the book I have seen an adaptation of but never picked up. I know, I know!!! How could I have gone through 40 years of life without ever having read A Christmas Carol??? Honestly, maybe I did at some point but the actual book is buried in my brain beneath the various recreations by film, play, muppet and anything else that dared to take on the most quintessential Christmas tale of all time. Trust me… I KNOW A Christmas Carol. Just this year I saw another hour-long dramatized version at Silver Dollar City complete with a very silly version of The Ghost of Christmas present. I’m telling you, she was something else. I don’t really understand why so many dramatized versions choose to do such odd versions of the ghosts unless it’s just to entertain the children, but some of them can be quite annoying. In the novel, Dickens gave all the ghosts the gravity befitting their station.

I mean, what can I say about Dickens? I actually quite love Dickens and have always found his work to be surprisingly accessible even in today’s modern times where readers want to throw out the fluff in language and get straight to the point. Other readers, anyway. I rather like lyrical prose as long as it doesn’t border on pretentious. A Tale of Two Cities has long been one of my favorite classics, and Dickens’ work has endured because of its accessibility. It doesn’t hurt that the audio version I listened to as I prepared for my own family Christmas was narrated by Hugh Grant. His voice? Also highly accessible and wholly satisfying.

If you are like me and have been so inundated with adaptations that you’ve never taken the time to pick up this super short Christmas novel, maybe do so next year and enjoy a little cozy Christmas reading time. There’s nothing quite like the real thing.

But anyone who doesn’t think this is the best adaptation will have to fight me…

Published December 17, 1843 by Chapman & Hall. Edition published December 21, 2020 by Audible Studies. Runtime 2 hrs. 44 mins. Narrated by Hugh Grant.