It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

which for me means just one thing: time for my annual re-read of The Dark is Rising. Yes, annual. I posted about it a year ago -- in fact my one-year bloggiversary is fast approaching (!) and what a long, strange trip it's been.

I'm not the only one who reads The Dark is Rising every midwinter. Laura's reading it too, and I daresay there are others. Instead of "reviewing" it, this time, I think I'll leave you with some quotes, all from the first few chapters. These are some of the sentences that give me thrills and chills every year, though I have no idea how they'll sound if you haven't already read the book a dozen times. Honestly, it ONLY gets better with each reread. Why don't you all read it along with Laura and me? Here goes:

The radio let out a sudden hideous crackle of static as he passed the table.

This night will be bad. And tomorrow will be beyond imagining.

He was woken by music.

And before him, standing alone and tall on the white slope, leading to nowhere, were two great carved wooden doors.

"Minds hold more than they know," the tall man said. "Particularly yours."

"Forests are not biddable places."

He felt again the small drooping of the spirits that had come in the last two days, because this year for the first time that he could remember there had been no birthday present from Stephen.

And last but not least, a chapter title: The Book of Gramarye.