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[Movie still from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, New Line Cinema]

Happy New Year! Now’s the time for new beginnings and setting future resolutions. For the inhabitants of Middle Earth those resolutions might look a “tiny” bit different than most.

Image by Social Butterfly from Pixabay

New Year's Eve this year looked very different than it would have a hundred years ago. No midnight selfies to post on Instagram, no club-hopping between venues with a $50 cover and too many drunk people, no last-minute Tinder dates to try and find someone to kiss when the clock strikes twelve. Despite these new ways to celebrate, New Year’s Eve has always been an important night to mark in the calendar, and people have always done something to celebrate. A more sedated ball, a house party (not the kind with red solo cups), a family evening around the fire, or some champagne with a few friends have been the go-to for centuries. And while cultural norms around drinking come and go, one thing is for certain: our favorite authors have no doubt dealt with some serious New Year’s hangovers at one time or another.

But how would these classic literary figures deal with the first day of the year if they were in their prime this winter? We have some thoughts.

Photo by Wilfried Santer on Unsplash

It’s Jacob Grimm’s birthday on January 4 and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate. And while we’re not cramming 233 candles on a cake – we tried, they wouldn’t fit – we are partying it up with the unusual fairy tale adaptations Grimm and his contemporaries inspired. So, happy birthday, Jacob Grimm. We’ll be over here by the punch bowl hanging out with Hans Christian Andersen and your brother Wilhelm.

[Movie still from Beauty and the Beast, Walt Disney Pictures]

It’s no secret that reading completes us. Studies have shown that reading fiction increases our capacity for empathy, reduces stress levels, and might just help us live a little longer. For 2018, we’re challenging you to reach outside your reading comfort zone – and we’ve come up with a few ideas to get you started. Think of us as your bookish guides on this literary quest.

[Photo by erin mckenna on Unsplash]

While Elf on the Shelf might be a fairly new holiday tradition, elves have appeared in literature for hundreds of years. While these elves don’t work for Santa, they do end up in a lot of mischief. Here’s our list of famous elves in literature!

We all know the story of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; it’s been retold and adapted enough times that it’s become part of popular culture. Certainly a great deal of its longevity has to do with Dickens particular blend of wit and pathos. But what if he wasn’t the one who penned the classic? How would A Christmas Carol read if some other authors took a crack at it?