For day six of Blogmas, I’m taking a well-known Christmas song and giving it a bookish spin. This is just a fit of fun, but I tried to match the days of the song up to books that had similar themes or titles. Let me know if you think I did a good job, or absolutely bombed. (Might be the latter 😉 )
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
A partridge in a pear tree
I chose this book for the simply reason that the first line of the song refers to a singular bird, and so does the title of Maya Angelou’s autobiographical work. Lack of freedom is also common theme in this book, and the partridge is frequently hunted, so IKWTCBS was the immediate choice for me.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Two turtle doves
[and a partridge in a pear tree]
Turtle doves are a symbol of love and faithfulness because they supposedly form strong mating bonds, and Sarai and Lazlo are my two cute turtle doves of choice for the second day of Christmas, because their relationship is so sweet and it made me weak.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Three French hens
[Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
This book immediately comes to mind for me when I think of hens, because it sounds so sweet and I’ve been wanting to read it for a while. *looks up e-book prices*
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Four calling birds
[three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
This may seem like a curveball, but it’s actually not too off-the-map. Most people assume ‘calling birds’ refers to birds that sing to one another, but in the original song, the lyrics were ‘four colly birds’. ‘Colly’ means coal-black in colour, so I felt Nevernight fitted the day four really well, since it has a black raven on the cover.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Five golden rings
[four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
I just had to pick this book for this line of the song. I know there aren’t exactly five gold rings in the LOTR trilogy, but it fitted the them, so I couldn’t resist.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Six geese a-layin’
[five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
I’ve not read this book but so many blogging pals and people I know in the book community have reviewed it and given it really high ratings, so it immediately came to mind when I thought of geese.
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Seven swans a-swimmin’
[six geese a-layin’, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree]
This non-fiction book is about three generations of women living in China, and it’s a book that’s been on my TBR for years. It was a pretty clear choice for the seventh day of Christmas, but it also reminded me that I still need to get to this!
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Eight maids a-milkin’
[seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
This is a light-hearted, simply story about a girl who works on her family’s farm but it seemed spot on for ‘maids a-milkin’.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Nine lords a-leapin’
[eight maids a-milkin’, seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
OK so I know there aren’t nine high lords in the series, and I know they don’t exactly leap around much (can you imagine them doing a cèilidh-type dance altogether?!) but you’ve got to give a girl a little creative license here.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Ten ladies dancin’
[nine lords a-leapin’, eight maids a-milkin’, seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
Ladies dancing makes me think if Pride and Prejudice straight away, because they do a lot of that throughout the novel. Like, a lot.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Eleven pipers pipin’
[ten ladies dancin’, nine lords a-leapin’, eight maids a-milkin’, seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
I had to think a little outside of the box for this one, but in the end I settled on Lord of the Flies, because when the boys land on the island they decide to follow one leader, Ralph, who tells them what to do. They also choose a conch as the symbol of power and everyone must listen to whoever is holding the conch, comparable to the song of the pied piper.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…
Twelve drummers drummin’
[eleven pipers pipin’, ten ladies dancin’, nine lords a-leapin’, eight maids milkin’, seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’ five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree]
For the twelfth and final day of Christmas, I had to go with Leah. I read the book earlier this year, and although there were some parts I didn’t love, I thoroughly enjoyed her passion for drumming and music.
What would your books for the twelve days be? Have you read any of these?
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Oh that‘s such a creative spin on the Song, I love it! 😍 From what I‘m hearing, I‘m getting more and more excited to read Strange the Dreamer (+ the sequel) 😱
Such a cool idea! And I love the amount of thinking that went into this, especially your knowledge about the song and it’s roots. Merry Christmas 🎄
Haha thanks Rachael! Everyone seems to know the song so I thought it would be a fun take on it 😃 Some lyrics were quite easy to link to books but some were really tricky (days 8 and 11 especially hard)! 😂
Oh I love this idea and your creative recommendations for this blog post!