{"id":32372,"date":"2022-12-24T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32372"},"modified":"2022-12-26T17:29:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T17:29:19","slug":"5-wintry-books-to-read-during-long-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/5-wintry-books-to-read-during-long-nights\/","title":{"rendered":"5 wintry books to read during long\u00a0nights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Liz Rosenberg<\/a>, Binghamton University, State University of New York<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter solstice brings the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It\u2019s a great night to spend reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve taught English and creative writing in snowy Binghamton, New York, for more than 40 years \u2013 reading, writing, reviewing and judging books all the while<\/a> \u2013 so it\u2019s never hard for me to find something to read. Only to choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To save you the same indecision, I\u2019ve picked five books for the darkest time of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Henry David Thoreau, \u201cWalden Pond<\/a>\u201d (1854)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thoreau\u2019s \u201cWalden Pond\u201d is America\u2019s most celebrated nature book, filled with the author\u2019s observations of the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. \u201cWalden\u201d begins in July, but Thoreau welcomes winter in some of the book\u2019s most beautiful passages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black
Thoreau\u2019s cabin on the edge of Walden Pond cost US$28.12 in building materials when built in the early 1850s. Culture Club\/via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe north wind had already begun to cool the pond,\u201d Thoreau writes, when he \u201cwent into winter quarters.\u201d Not that he stayed indoors much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us won\u2019t stretch out face down \u201con ice only an inch thick,\u201d as Thoreau reports doing, but we can read about him doing it while staying warm. Thoreau noticed frozen bubbles, stacked \u201clike a string of beads\u201d or \u201csilvery coins poured from a bag.\u201d He catalogs \u2013 how he loves cataloging! \u2013 the colors of the pond, from \u201ctransparent\u201d to dark green to \u201copaque and whitish or gray.\u201d In winter he burned pine, decaying stumps, hickory, dry leaves and logs he\u2019d dragged home while skating across the pond. Fuel provided him warmth, cooked food and company. \u201cYou can always see a face in the fire,\u201d Thoreau wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In winter he welcomed rare humans, such as fellow writer Louisa May Alcott\u2019s father, Bronson. But mostly he encountered foxes, squirrels, chickadees, jays and a barred owl that he described as the \u201cwinged brother of the cat.\u201d Thoreau delights in the sound of the ice booming in a thaw and describes moonlit rescues of hikers he escorted back to the edge of civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five chilly chapters of \u201cWalden\u201d comprise a winter sampler for those who haven\u2019t read this mighty book \u2014 and for those returning to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Robert Frost, \u201cThe Poetry of Robert Frost<\/a>\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No poet sang of winter like poet laureate and New Englander Robert Frost. In his great \u201cStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening\u201d he pays homage to winter\u2019s solitude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBetween the woods and frozen lake\/The darkest evening of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Poetry of Robert Frost<\/a>\u201d weighs in at more than 600 pages. \u201cYou Come Too<\/a>,\u201d a beautifully curated edition of poems for the young, is less than 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both books contain popular midwinter favorites. Even their titles suggest the poet\u2019s strong connection to winter: \u201cLooking for a Sunset Bird in Winter\u201d; \u201cA Hillside Thaw\u201d (\u201cTen million silver lizards out of snow!\u201d); \u201cGood-by and Keep Cold\u201d; \u201cA Patch of Old Snow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cBirches,\u201d Frost writes of branches that turn raindrops into ice crystals melted by sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust \u2013<\/p>

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away<\/p>

You\u2019d think the inner dome of heaven has fallen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Frost\u2019s poems are easily memorized and lovely to read aloud over any blustering gales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Dylan Thomas, \u201cA Child\u2019s Christmas in Wales<\/a>\u201d (1952)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As Frost wrote for all ages, so did Dylan Thomas in \u201cA Child\u2019s Christmas in Wales\u201d \u2013 available in its original Tiffany blue New Directions paperback edition, decorated exquisitely with illustrations by Ellen Raskin \u2013 a winter\u2019s poem made to be sung. We can even hear the poet chanting it aloud on his 1952 recording<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One need not be Welsh to love Thomas\u2019 seaside childhood. One need not even celebrate Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne Christmas was so much like another,\u201d the poem opens, \u201cthat I can never remember whether it snowed\/for six days and six nights when I was 12\/or whether it snowed for 12 days and\/12 nights when I was six.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Italo Calvino, \u201cIf on a Winter\u2019s Night a Traveler<\/a>\u201d (1979)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Italo Calvino bundles magic, metafiction, philosophy, danger and love into \u201cIf on a Winter\u2019s Night a Traveler.\u201d It\u2019s Calvino\u2019s most mystifying work, challenging readers\u2019 assumptions about reading and storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exactly a novel, it comprises the first chapter of 10 invented novels by 10 imaginary authors. Is it still winter? a reader may wonder. Was it ever winter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Calvino admits, \u201cThe only truth I can write is that of the instant I am living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. James Fenton, \u201cA Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds<\/a>\u201d (2002)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some gardeners spend all winter dreaming. Others spend it busily planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds\u201d proposes a radically old-fashioned approach \u2013 to grow a garden simply sprung from seed. Author James Fenton explains, \u201c[S]imple-mindedness was a part of what I was after: buy a packet of nasturtium seeds and plant them, grow some very tall sunflowers \u2013 this is what gardening should be all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A garden doesn\u2019t need expensive starter plants or even a plan. The great question in life, as well as with gardens, is: What do I want to grow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Winter unearths simplicity \u2013 the stark black-and-white vista it presents, the bare-boned landscape. It encourages readers to follow suit by ridding themselves of the extraneous and making room for life. As the celebrated saying goes, \u201cIf you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but the same amount of snow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, as December ends, we turn the corner toward light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Gardeners spend winter nights dreaming of green growing things. Busybee-CR via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Liz Rosenberg<\/a>, Professor of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, Binghamton University, State University of New York<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liz Rosenberg, Binghamton University, State University of New York Winter solstice brings the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It\u2019s a great night to spend reading. I\u2019ve taught English and creative writing in snowy Binghamton, New York, for more than 40 years \u2013 reading, writing, reviewing and judging books […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[7327,13185,6007,13186,3163,423,9149],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32394,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32372\/revisions\/32394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}