The Twelve Terrors of Christmas

John Updike's prose and Edward Gorey's imagery combine to form succinct and amusing counterpoints to the standard overly joyous takes on the holiday season. Super quick read and well worthwhile even for just a dose of inspiration.

Edward Gorey's illustrations in this work really reminded me of Roald Dahl's. Both worked in the children's literature realm, and both had a bleak, sketchy, hectic/anxious feel to their work. As far as I can tell, they never met, but were contemporaries, growing up on opposite sides of the Atlantic.