By the flicker of the flames

     With snow here today and temperatures (for us) very low, what better than another spot of fireside reading. Last year's post sparked some good suggestions for books to get cosy with; I asked Mr. C. just now what he might reach for, if not his favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, and he offered something by that very fine travel writer Eric Newby, possibly Love and War in the Apennines. In turn, I'd add to the ghost stories I mentioned last time round and suggest Michelle Paver's wonderfully chilling Dark Matter. How about you? Anything you'd particularly like to read by the flicker of the flames?    

Comments

[Susan in TX]

The Hawk and the Dove Trilogy by Penelope Wilcock seems to beg for cold weather, a lit fire, and a cup of something warm in your hand.

[Anna]

I was writing about just this subject last week when my town was snowy. I think The Children's Book would be particularly suitable for a cosy afternoon.

http://tartanwallpaper.blogspot.com/2010/11/snow-day-reading.html

[Oxslip]

When I was a child it was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase,or The Box of Delights.
These days I don't have a single favourite, but I'd like to read more Hardy and The Woodlanders has some good wintriness, but that would be a reread

[Dark Puss]

These days the answer would be no. I don't mean I wouldn't like to read by your fire but that I just don't have in mind any change in my reading matter with regard to place, time, snow etc.

More constructively, in my youth at my cottage it would probably have been something like Greenmantle or Huntingtower. Whether I could overlook his racial stereotyping and xenophobic tendencies these days is doubtful and I have not read any Buchan for at least 30 years.

Perhaps something by Gatiss? I did enjoy The Vesuvius Club and so, recently, did J.

[adele geras]

I also don't read according to weather...I've just been in Melbourne with THE SLAP (which I loved) but am now reading HEARTSTONE by CJ Sansom. That's a good fat curling up with kind of book, I reckon. Can't wait to read DARK MATTER!

[Dark Puss]

I know nothing about the book Dark Matter but we physicists are cetainly trying to discover it in nature! Here is one such search that I heard about at a recent conference I attended in the USA.

[Cornflower]

That's on my wishlist now. Thankyou, Susan.

[Cornflower]

Good idea, Anna, and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which you also suggest, sounds good too.

[Cornflower]

Oh, I must read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase again!

[Cornflower]

WIMPS, eh?

[Dark Puss]

Very Good! It's all explained very clearly in this cartoon.

[B R Wombat]

Thank you so much for recommending Dark Matter. I read it in snowbound Perthshire and it was exactly the right book at the right time and I'd have known nothing about it if you hadn't mentioned it.