Reading Copy Book Blog

If your singing along at home this is the point where you really wish you had never started singing this song in the first place, your eggnog is long gone, you notice the cookie tray you were eyeing up at “Seven Swans a swimming” is now mostly crumbs, everyone is off tempo and you really wish you had gotten someone in your family the following book to help keep the rhythm….

Buddy Rich’s Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments by Buddy Rich & Henry Adler

Learn the rudiments from Buddy Rich, arguably better than any 12 drummers you can name. Written in 1942, this is a classic drumming guide. Happy Holidays from everyone at AbeBooks!

The gift of music, hire a band for the love of your life. Or better still, forget kilted Scotsmen.  These here are REAL pipers piping.

The Manual of Modern Plumbing by S.B. Sterbrock

This 1907 illustrated guide demonstrates turn of the century plumbing techniques including roofs, gutters, cesspools, etc.

What has always bothered me about 10 lords a leaping is what kind of self respecting lord would leap about.  That’s why I think this is a much better option.

A Treatise on the Cavalry and Saddle Horse: With remarks on Pacing and Leaping by G. Orr

Lordship and knighthood are often associated with horsemanship. This 1803 treatise on horsemanship could come in very handy.

Better than nine dancers dancing, teach your love 12 wacky dances from the 1800s! Note:The Dept. of Wacky Dances is a sub section of the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Starr Wood’s Dances You Have Never Seen

A group of 12 comic dances circa 1890, each one is described with a full page color illustration of a scantily clad Art Nouveau lady with a crazy costume.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight maids a milking… The advent of automated milking machinery has made the milk maid somewhat redundant over the years.  However thanks to the preservation of literature, it will never be a completely lost art.

The Complete Servant Maid; or Young Woman’s Best Companion by Anne Barker

This 1792 booklet printed for young servant maids contains full, plain, and easy directions for qualifying them for service in general. The section devoted to the work of the dairymaid includes instruction on making butter and various cheeses.

Maida Silverman’s Anna and the Seven Swans

This is signed copy of the enchanting Baba Yaga Russian folk-tale of a girl attempting to save her brother from an evil witch who sends seven swans after him. Fowl count - 23… maybe that’s why it is traditional to eat some sort of bird for Christmas dinner?

There’s an awful lot of avian themed presents in this song - has anyone else noticed?  It might be interesting to note that economists are really out there earning their money calculating the true cost of Christmas each year and creating a fancy website.  Apparently last year H5N1 bird flu caused this index to shoot up due to all these avian gifts… for OUR sixth day of Christmas we give to you….

Six Geese from a Tomb at Medium by Wagas Ahmad Khwaja

Published in Pakistan in 1987, this copy is a signed first edition.

FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, I think this has to be everyone’s favourite part of the song as it’s where we can really belt it out!  What’s the only thing your true love will love more than gold rings?

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

It’s a special GOLD souvenir edition (wait for it) in a FIVE-RING binder! This edition commemorates the sale of 10 million BHG’s cookbooks.

After a weekend repast (and don’t they go so quick?) we once again revive our Christmas countdown…

*achem* On the third day of Christmas, the true love was to give Three French Hens. We upped the ante, now you can create your own flock…

Le Poulailler - Monographie Des Poules Indigenes et Exotiques  by Charles Jacque.

Published by Agricole de la Masion Rustique, Paris, in 1858 with French text; the famous Barbizon School animal painter Charles Jacque here offers his thoughts on animal breeding. This was the dominant manual in France for poultry breeders for decades.

“On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two The Turtle and the Dove’s, and F. Partridge In a (pear) Tree”

The Turtle and the Dove by Don Freeman

A children’s story written in 1964 about a beautiful white dove who is blown out to sea in a storm. When the dove lands on a turtle’s back in the ocean, they soon become friends.

We thought it might be fun to rework ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ in a bookish way.  So from now until Christmas, I will post each day with the literary equivalent to that day’s gift, and yes I’m well aware the 12 days actually run from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany, but if I’m changing the song I might as well change the dates too… So without further delay.

“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me F Partridge In a (pear) Tree”

In A Tree - Places For Thinking by F. Partridge - an entertaining storybook published by the Australian Council for Educational Research in 1999, this book provides a “way in” to a collection of questions and ideas which children should find intriguing.

Which? Magazine, the UK’s equivalent of Consumer Reports, has given AbeBooks.co.uk a big thumbs up today. It writes about what the Internet is good and bad for when it comes to Christmas shopping. No one calls it ‘Holiday’ shopping over there. Which? Magazine has the power to break a brand or product if it feels consumers are at risk.