Tonight marks the start of one of my Christmas traditions. The annual reading of A Christmas Carol.

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

— A Christmas Carol

I received my first copy of the book 30 years ago. I've missed a few readings of it over the years but I haven't missed a reading of it in the last 15 years. The story, the language, the characters, everything about it is fantastic.