Readings for Advent and Christmas from Gutenberg

One of my favorite and often-visited websites is that of the Project Gutenberg. There are over 20,000 free books (electronic texts) in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog, a bibliophile’s dream! It’s been a great source of reading material for my very cool SONY Reader.

The good folks at Project Gutenberg have a nice collection of recommended Advent and Christmas readings. Most of these are short enough for a daily reading in addition to your daily lectionary readings.

Johannes Gutenberg (c1400-1468)

Here are the titles on their Advent Calendar reading list, I’m sure you’ll recognize some of them:

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
• The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke
• Old Christmas From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving by Washington Irving
• Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse by Eugene Field
• The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke
• A Christmas Garland by Sir Max Beerbohm
• The Feast of St. Friend by Arnold Bennett
• Lill’s Travels in Santa Claus Land by Farman and Pratt and Towne
• The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
• A Defective Santa Claus by James Whitcomb Riley
• Christmas in Legend and Story by Elva S. Smith
• A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Christmas Books of Mr. M.A. Titmarsh by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Yule-Tide in Many Lands by Mary Poague Pringle and Clara A. Urann
• The Thin Santa Claus by Ellis Parker Butler
• Christmas Sunshine by Various
• Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
• In the Yule-Log Glow, Book I
• A Napa Christchild; and Benicia’s Letters by Charles A. Gunnison
• A Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson
• Colonel Crockett’s Co-operative Christmas by Rupert Hughes
• A Visit From Saint Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore
• Twas the Night before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore.

In addition to those titles on their Advent Calender they offer a “Christmas Bookshelf” that contains downloadable short stories, short illustration Christmas books, novels, poetry, children’s books, plays, non-fiction, and music. Did I mention these are FREE? Project Gutenberg depends on volunteers and donations to provide this great resource, so donations are welcomed. Instructions for making donations are on their website.