Wednesday, and Susan Sarah here....
We had a few flurries yesterday—actually a series of “snowbursts,” where it snows like crazy for about ten minutes, blizzard-style, barely covering the grass, and then clears up. I sat in my office watching this beautiful storm, and wishing for real snow. It’s in my DNA, this love of snow, I guess—I grew up in northern Upstate NY, so a winter without snow (as too often happens in Maryland) just doesn’t seem right to me.
The weensiest bit of snow here yesterday….
So I started musing about what I would do if I was truly snowed in…and the answer came to me: read. Read, read, read. I’d wallow in books and stories, and plow through that TBR pile in my bedroom (and stacked elsewhere in my house) like a Bobcat plowing through snow.
All this yearning, of course, is bubbling up in me because in reality, I can’t lounge around reading yet: I’m still in the deadline throes…getting closer, but still in that long, dark Deadline Tunnel, hardhat firmly on my head, light switched on…there’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel—the merest translucent sunlight beam ahead…
But I digress. Where was I – oh yeah – that irresistible, deep yearning to dive into the sheer treat—and really the necessary indulgence -- of reading. The urge grows the longer I stay away from it, since I have to deprive myself of good reads when I’m heavily into a writing phase. I can’t read fiction when I’m writing it, certainly not anything similar to what I'm writing, though sometimes I can read way outside my own genre. By the end of a hard day’s writing, my brain has had enough wordswordswordswords anyway. A little tv, a little music, a little knitting, something like that is okay, and helps the brain recuperate for the next day's onslaught of words, but it’s nearly impossible for me to cozy down with a good book when I'm in late stage writing until the manuscript is done.
But if I =could= be peacefully snowed in, ahh, that would be wonderful -- with the writing done and the house neat, the kids off at college, and nothing else immediate to be done, I’d curl up with a soft afghan and the dog (if there’s an afghan on a sofa with a warm person under it, the dog will be there, trust me)…what would I read?
This is similar to the Desert Island question -- if you were stranded, what books would you want to have with you? The usual answers might include the classics we’ve read and loved and want a chance to read again. My Snow Day list includes books that I’ve been saving to savor, and yearning to read.
Here are a few that I’m looking forward to reading – some are new, some have been in the stack for a while, some have dust on them but I’ll get to them…but first I have to finish my manuscript – and then, best scenario, a quiet few days to read them!
First, of course, are all the wonderful new Wench books! See the sidebar to the right…there are two or three there that I haven’t read, though I’m happy to say I’m almost caught up w/ the Wenches.
As for my TBR pile, I’d need a pretty big snowstorm to get through all of them, but I’d love the time and opportunity to start working my way through this stack….
The Water Devil, Judith Merkle Riley (finally, the sequel! We’ve waited for years!)
Innocent Traitor, A Novel of Lady Jane Grey, Alison Weir (I have an ARC of this and can’t wait to find time for it)
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield (this looks truly fascinating)
Avalon, Anya Seton (gorgeous reissue, and a book that I'd love to read again)
Forever Amber, Kathleen Winsor (I cannot resist a beautiful reissue w/ gorgeous cover)
The Thorne Maze, Karen Harper (I love historical mysteries, and I want to catch up on this wonderful Elizabethan series)
See Delphi and Die, Lindsey Davis (Marcus Didius Falco! I adore this series. I have two more Falco books to read before this one, but at the moment my husband has them in his stack…)
Marrying Mozart, Stephanie Cowell (stunning cover, and looks like a fabulous story)
Your turn! If you were snowed in -– or if you’ve had enough of snow and ice, and want to be somewhere warm, what new or current books would you take with you to that warm, sunny, isolated island…or to your favorite warm, cozy reading nook?
I’m looking for more suggestions after I plow through my own list....
~Susan Sarah