Do You Read More When It is Cold, Snowy, and Gray?

The Four of Us live just miles from the 45th parallel in the Northern Hemisphere of this lovely Earth and this time of year it is mostly gray, bone-chilling cold, and very snowy. A time of year when we get very nervous if our pile of books-to-read is not stacked high. Just last week The Big Sister was blue, she had just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and had post-perfect-book-dread: "will there ever be another book as good? Can I find a book to occupy my perfect book spoiled mind?" With a little quick thinking, a bit of research, and time at our book shelves we managed to replenish her stack: previously overlooked books by Madeleine L'Engle Arm of the Starfish Quartet, Many Waters, and Meet the Austins; to add to the mix, a little non-fiction, If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland; coupled with twenty minutes online at the library, reserving books --and her hunger was sated, for the moment.

Can you find The Sisters? Would you believe we've gotten almost three feet more snow since this photo was taken? Yes, it is very snowy here.

Recently, The Sisters found their stack of audio books dwindling --a calamity, for girls who's favorite past-time is disappearing in to their art room and listening there way through a biblio-epic journey. Usually the solution is simple: a trip to the library, but what if we're house-bound thanks to six inches of fresh snow? Thankfully, we have a subscription with www.audible.com. An investment in a new audio book is a small price to pay for the Cabin Fever cure. But how to decide what audio book to buy? The Sisters know --it has to be one you want to listen to over and over, and lately, that is Brian Jacques' Redwall series. The audio books are recorded with a full cast and music, with Brian Jacques himself, leading the story with a rich Scottish brogue. And the BEST part: there are 23 books in the series, perfect for the long, cold winter we seem to be in the middle of.

So, do you read more on cold and gray days? And if you do read more, go ahead an brag about how many books, we love to hear about what you are reading (or listening to)!