Backlist Book #03: Snow White and Rose Red
Christmas book floods + reading what you really want to read
ONE CHRISTMAS EVE when I was around twelve, my dad needed to do some last-minute shopping and I decided to tag along, just to browse. It was the strange, liminal period between the death of the small-town shop and the birth of online shopping, so we ended up at Walmart. Naturally I made my way to the book section, and though the exact details are fuzzy, I came home with what would become one of my most reread books, Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede.
A retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale set Elizabethan England, it was the perfect midwinter book for a kid like me—bookish, dreamy, and with a penchant for fairy tales. In fact, my absolute favorite book as a child was A Treasury of the World’s Greatest Fairy Tales by Helen Hyman, and my favorite tale in that book was, of course, Snow White and Rose Red, so it’s no surprise I gravitated toward it.1
Many years later, which is to say a few years ago, I learned about Jólabókaflóðið, or “Yule book flood,” the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books to read on Christmas Eve. It immediately resurrected the long-dormant memory of finding the perfect read on a day when I had nothing more to do than curl up with a good book. I was tempted to get another copy of Snow White and Rose Red and reread it, but I decided for the time being to let it live on in as a childhood legend.2
Instead, I bought myself a new book, one that wasn’t at the library and that I wouldn’t normally buy because it wasn’t related to work or something I felt I should be reading or any other number of quite silly reasons.3 I don’t remember what that first Jólabókaflóðið book was, but last year it was the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews, and this year I think it’s going to be Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han. On the surface, these two writers seem like they would never be chosen by the same reader. But in both cases, my heart beat a little faster when I came across them, and that was that. The heart wants what it wants, what can I say?
As it turns out, this week’s letter is less of a recommendation for a specific book than for a way of life as a reader, at least in this moment between one year and the next, when the world slows down and you might have a little more time for reading. Think about what you really want to read this winter. Is there a book you desire that you’ve been putting off (perversely, sometimes I save the books I most want to read4)? Maybe you need to go to the library and wander the stacks or spend an afternoon at the bookstore. Let your fingers trail the spines; let a certain cover catch your eye. Forget about what you think you should read. What do you want to read? A graphic novel? A favorite book from your childhood, or the latest YA? Or maybe you can finally set aside the time to read a thousand-page Russian tome like The Brothers Karamazov or War and Peace. In this one small area of life, take a moment to listen not just to your mind but the soft animal of your body, then give it what it wants.
The cover was destroyed early on, and for many years, all I had was a tattered insert of the middle few stories. I finally managed to figure out the title and author after a long and arduous search and found both volumes on eBay. I have never been happier to see a book than when I finally held it, fully intact, in my hands!
Sometimes I’m scared to reread old favorites—what if they don’t hold up? I usually prefer to avoid the disappointment and let them remain a legend.
Technically the Icelandic tradition is about giving books to loved ones and reading together. I’ve tried this at various points in the past, but the reality is I’m the only one in my family who loves reading, so I’ve settled on treating myself instead.
See again Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han!
Love this. 🩵