Recommended Winter Reading?

One of the articles I see all the time being posted online around May or June are the obligatory Suggested Summer Reading, Best Beach Reads, or something of the kind. Frankly my TBR pile is too big for me to take note of many of these recommendations, but they’re always worth a look for some lighter entertainment. Summer is so busy (with outdoor activities, family reunions, vacations, garage sales, local festivals, even outdoor movie showings) that it makes sense that summer reads would be shorter, “fun,” and almost fluffy in nature.

Which brings up the question: Is there such a thing as Recommended Winter Reading?

Well, if there wasn’t before, there is now! I shall make it so!

To me winter is the perfect time to get deep into reading something longer, something denser, and maybe something dryer than seems appropriate during the sunny, busy summer. Winter is the time when the days are short and the darkness seems to close everything in. The cold draws people closer together, cooping them up indoors. Where I live, there are still events and (especially during the holidays) festivities to go to, but it seems like it takes a lot more persuasion to lure me out of my warm house into the cold night air. Lots of wildlife has either migrated to warmer climes or gone into hibernation. Humans take a cue from that, and often are on vacation down south or burrowed deep under their blankets at home.

There will always be things that distract from reading, even then. There’s work, and errands, and chores, and other forms of entertainment at our fingertips such as television and the internet. But the voice of reading* seems to be easier to hear in the stillness of winter, and so as the weather turns cold I usually find myself instinctually turning to my bookshelf for a good thick volume to match my good thick sweaters and socks.

*Which sounds, perhaps not coincidentally, like the figure of speech “the voice of reason.”