I pull the small package out of my mailbox and immediately unwrap it. It’s a copy of A Christmas Story by the late actor Richard Burton. For decades, I have been seeking this memoir about Burton’s impoverished childhood in Wales, having read it in a magazine as a teenager.
I love Christmas books. I purchase one or more every year, which means my collection now stretches across three sagging shelves. I often, about a little girl who wants a doll and a doll who longs for a little girl, was and is a favorite.