“If you have a garden and a library,
you have everything you need.”
Cicero
(106 BC - 43 BC)
Winter arrived.
As winter became ensconced making itself at home for the duration, I got the better of it as I rode my magic carpet to many lands and eras long ago and far away. Sometimes I read by candlelight when electrical service failed. I remembered the characters who peopled Jane Austin's novels and all their firesides and candles. I found that a candle on either side of a propped-up book served light which was quite sufficient. Cozy and warm, too.
Weeks floated by, pages turned, and ice melted, falling in magical showers.
Weather turned its cycles from this to that, then back to this again, then back to that. Books do not have to be defrosted and scraped of ice, and dug out of snow. Just go to the shelf and take down another one. Make another cup of tea. Gaze out at the squirrels' nests and stretch the eyes awhile.
I am so fortunate in that I have inherited the libraries of two people, plus all my own collection. A collective wealth of books. A treasure to be mined. Especially on winter days.
Regardless of the weather, I keep my sanity and am happy as long as I have my books, music, and flowers.
Here is my reading list for this winter.
(Published)
(1901) Mary Johnston: Audrey
(1909) William J. Locke: Simon the Jester
(1911) Henry Sydnor Harrison: Queed
(1915) Gene Stratton-Porter: Michael O'Halloran
(1916) Emerson Hough: The Magnificent Adventure
(1924) Emilie Loring: Here Comes the Sun!
(1928) Peter B. Kyne: The Thunder God
(1943) Cleo Dawson: She Came to the Valley
(1950) Marie Campbell: A House With Stairs
(1986) Ernest K. Gann: Fate Is the Hunter
(2005) Markus Zusak: The Book Thief
(2006) Charles Colson: Loving God
(2007) Sheila Roberts: On Strike for Christmas
(2008) Jon and Kate Gosselin, and Beth Carson: Multiple Bles8ings
