“For this week’s Weekly Geeks, share with us the books which call out to you during the cold, wintry months. Are there genres which appeal to you most? Why do you think you are drawn to these types of books during winter? Do you have some book recommendations for other readers who are looking for some escape from the blustery weather? Give us some of your favorites and tell us why you recommend them.

As “extra credit” why not share some photos of what the weather looks like outside your home…or where you curl up to read when ‘the weather outside is frightening.’”

My hometown spends Winter under endless white waves of crystalline snowdrifts, beneath a sky that changes day by day from storm clouds to bright cerulean. Not long ago I moved a short way out of town, but an invisible rift between here and there creates entirely different weather; my Winters now are full of hurricane-force winds and rainstorms, and sometimes what we call “cute snow”, the kind that gathers its few inches on the ground overnight and melts off in a couple of days. In a way, the weather here in the desert seems drearier than the layers of sparkling snow and ice, and the nights are certainly colder. Snow and overcast skies make a blanket that will keep a little town warm; out here in the desert we’re exposed naked to the cruel Winter chill.

The lake last week, when the water came back after a good snow.

In otherwords, even in a high desert, Winter calls for a different sort of book than other seasons, books that draw you in deep and give a full-on sensory experience of another world. Maybe it’s because the pace of Winter is slower, and gives us more time to get lost in our reading, or maybe the cold weather makes the richness of things like hot chocolate, pumpkin bisque, and Victorian novels splendid instead of suffocating, but for some reason, for me anyway, books get denser and thicker in the Winter. Here are my suggestions for Winter reading, wherever you live:

Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip.
I’m in the middle of this right now, and I think it’s a wonderful Winter read. Old magic, enchanted harps, conversations by fire, wanderings in the wilderness and magical creatures . . . This trilogy employs all the fantasy tropes, but is so lyrical and lovely that it doesn’t even need to turn them on their heads. If you want to read something like Lord of the Rings during Winter but maybe don’t feel like reading it for the nth time, Riddle-Master is the perfect choice.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a great Winter book, for sure; in fact I’m not even sure it should be read at any other time. This alternate history stays true to its Regency novel heritage while inventing an entire history of magic for England. It’s long and divided into three parts, so you can stretch it out all Winter and read other books in between.

Poetry is especially welcome in the Winter; you can read as much or as little as you like, and each poem can give you a multitude of sensory experience in a small dose. The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, translated from the German by Stephen Mitchell, is a book I love to pick up on a whim and just page through slowly.

Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis is an autobiography that takes you through Lewis’s journey from skepticism to belief in God. This is my favorite book of his; even though his range of experience couldn’t be more different from mine, he gives voice and purpose to the awe I’ve felt while looking up at a cold, white mountain or dreaming of Norse gods.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. A book about eating local foods in season, living sustainably by growing your own food, and the preservation of our food culture through heirloom seeds and heritage meats. This is a perspective-altering book that would be good to read in Winter because it carries you full circle through all the seasons.

I read Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle on the North Coast in a cabin surrounded by thick ocean fog, and I think anything good to read on the coast is just as good to read in Winter. L’Engle explores creativity as it relates to the Christian faith, challenging the artist to be authentic as they integrate their living faith and art.