SFist is celebrating the holidays in many ways, as some of us will travel to far-off lands (or just the Midwest), while others of us will remain right here. All of us are psyched about the additional free time the holidays bring us to read books we've reserved online from the SF Public Library. Others of us have made book purchases from our local independent bookstore. Whatever your holiday plans, SFist wishes you the best, and encourages you to keep on reading.

SFist Emily has just finished The Devil Wears Prada. She recommends this book if you've ever worked in the fashion industry (she has), the publishing industry, or for an extraordinarily hateful person. The books heroine fulfill's everyone's fantasy of how to leave your job with a bang. Escapism at its finest. Plus it's the perfect legnth for a plane ride.

She'd also like to point out that sometimes the holidays and all the attendent stress(gift giving, family gatherings, long lines at stores,mean airport personel etc.) leave one feeling as though the world is absurd and that they are the only sane person left. A nice companion to this feeling is A Confederacy of Dunces By John Kennedy Toole (who tragically committed suicide before its publication). SFist Emily recommends this as a nice read over the holidays because it will make you laugh out loud in public (probably), and well, whatever you're up against, it can't possibly be this absurd.

Sfist Rain says: "Cold weather and the wish for snow always makes me want to pick up and re-read Ghost Story by Peter Straub. It's the perfect winter break book: entirely engrossing, completely scary, and it makes me want to curl up by a fire no matter how warm this dumb California winter weather may be."