Last night when I was walking up to the door of my home after a long day at work I noticed the tell tale brown and yellow square of a UPS door knocker and my heart raced a little. When I reached the door step and found the "c/o omers" scribbled haphazardly across the top by the brown pants wearing UPS delivery person I knew it could be only one thing; a book from a stranger that would occupy my time and later a place of honour on my book shelves and in my heart...

The check box for "pick-up after 10am the day after this attempt" was checked so I stuck the slip in my jacket so I could retrieve it as early as possible the next day and spent the night giddy and excited like a child on Christmas eve.

Fast forward to this morning and the clock toll of 10am, I put on my tuque (winter hat for the non-Canadians), my gloves, and my jacket and headed out into the cold to retrieve the mysterious package that had occupied my thoughts since I received confirmation that it had shipped. Getting it back to my office my fingers trembled a little as I opened the box wondering what book my Santa had chosen for me... Inside the box was not one but three books! The classic Ringworld by Larry Niven, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

I had stated in my exchange profile that I am a lover of sci-fi and fantasy and I have to confess that although I have heard of and been told to read Ringworld on many occasions I never have. Hyperion is another title that many times I have been told to read and yet again have failed to do so. Finally, A Canticle for Leibowitz comes from a genre of post-apocalyptic science fiction that I love and hadn't even mentioned in my profile.

My secret Santa read me like a book (it is a book exchange after all) and sent me three amazing titles that I look forward to reading over the next few weeks... Two will help me cross off lines from my "to read" list that have sat for far too long and the third will be an introduction to an author I have not heard of before in a sub-genre I really enjoy.

Thank you so much, you did an amazing job and I am very thankful.