Top outdoor yule decorator likes 'Skipping Christmas,' many others

Marty Slack's original "Christmas Utah" home lights show, accompanied by radio-synced music and choreographed lights, won last year's grand prize in the PlanetChristmas Worldwide Decorating Contest. The display, 5631 Whispering Pine Circle (820 East) in Murray, can be viewed from sundown to 10 p.m. weeknights and until 11 p.m. on weekends through New Year's.

Holiday yarn: Slack, who often reads books related to his leadership work as a Unified Fire Authority captain, enjoys the holiday reading "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham. Of note: The neighborhood in which the story unfolds is one where everyone decks out their homes for the holidays.

Tomes for tykes: Slack and his wife, Micalle, inherited a robust children's library, from which they would often read to their five children, from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series to "Where the Wild Things Are."

Best books: "My dad was a history teacher, and we always had tons of books," including hundreds of the old Readers Digest condensed books. "I was always reading those." The Fury series about a horse is a childhood favorite; Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" is a top grown-up pick.

Gift of reading: "I firmly believe ... that people who read are just more able to understand things," Slack said. "If they grow up reading, they will do better throughout their entire life, whatever their occupation ... or whatever hobbies they have. It makes them quicker."