While you can, that is... Winter began on December 21st and will come to a close in less than a month. Any season is perfect for reading, but here's how I try and make the most out of the cold months' story time opportunities. The popularity of winter reading comes with no shock or surprise - people want to be indoors out of the harsh elements and stay cozy. At least most people do. Okay, some people. But even those who crave the snow and freezing temps can appreciate the satisfaction of relaxing with a good book after a long day of outdoor activity. For me, winter arrives at a socially chaotic time. Every year, we host Christmas dinner as well as Christmas Eve dinner, which is not so much of a task in the department of cooking as it is in the department of cleaning - making sure the house does not look like you've been sourcing and wrapping last minute gifts on top of other necessary pre-celebration chores and errands. December is also the month of a holiday pet food drive coordinated by yours truly, and delivery is anywhere from a week to a few days before December 25th. These events alone wind the year out in a flurry of constant activity, and the new year brings the promise of a temporary respite of sorts. It is in this post-storm calm that I start carving out some time for the stacks of bound paper that was been patiently collecting a fine layer of wood stove dust. If your winter supplies you with ample opportunities to curl up and read, by all means indulge. The beauty of book reading is that it can be done virtually anywhere and at any time, provided you have a suitable light source, of course. If winter still leaves you endlessly busy, whether by want or by necessity, you may think you don't have the time to crack open that novel just yet. B u t you can. You simply need to find the available book time in your schedule. It's there. For me, that time can present itself in a few ways. To begin, let's start with the first available time slot - when starting a fire. In the grip of a cold winter, it's the first task of the day (after coffee, which is so solidly ingrained as the first task of the day that it no longer registers as a first task, but rather is grouped with expected necessities such as opening your eyes and retreating from your bed). Working with an older wood stove means that you must be attentive to the wood load and air flow as it catches, adjusting either or both to optimum balance before walking away for a significant amount of time. This means for about 15 - 20 minutes, I must "babysit" the stove to ensure it doesn't snuff itself out or in contrast, begin burning too hot. Which is the perfect amount of time to knock off a handful of pages. Reading first thing in the morning is like a soft wake up; a gradual ease into the activities ahead. As you delve back into your favorite story of the moment, who knows where you might be grabbing your coffee. While I watch the stove temperature slowly reach a steady number and build a satisfactory coal bed, I could sip my brew in San Francisco while eavesdropping on the Rutherfords, or maybe I'm perched on a faded square of stout metal in a North Carolina junkyard; the trunk lid of an old car already warmed by a scorching morning sun. Depends which book I've picked up: Flint, or Auto Biography. Another slot that I've managed to squeeze a few pages into is during breakfast or lunch. This is done with the assistance of a helper crab, partly because I have one at my disposal and partly because I have a pet peeve for fouling up book pages with food fingers. A helper crab is a former gas cap turned crab (a Creeker Car Parts creation) that can be helpful in various scenarios... and Major Crab is a top-notch page holder. Sometimes I need just a page held from the side between his pinchers; sometimes it's both pages on a hardback book that requires multiple crab legs to get the job done. Reading during breakfast or lunch also helps to keep me from falling into my own bad habit of trying to somehow multitask while eating, as if it's somehow justified to take a bite of something, run down the stairs to load wash, then run back upstairs to take another bite, clean out the coffee maker, take another bite, soak a dish or coffee cup(s), and continue. As the title of the chapter in the above photo states, whoa! In so many ways. (this was from the book Barefoot Hearted) It's still a compromise of sorts - I am still doing something besides just eating, but I'm more relaxed and in o n e s p o t. Finding time to read can also be as simple as shifting time spent mindlessly on your phone or computer. Those spans of minutes upon minutes that turn into a half hour or more and eventually suck you in could be a whole half hour riding across the Dempster Highway with Neil Peart on his trusty GS. Winter can be an especially easy time to fall into endless scrolling as you cozy up in your bed or favorite chair. Drop the robot block and pick up some paper. Or at least a Kindle. Or an audio book. In my opinion, nothing beats a real tangible honest to goodness book. An e-bookshelf just doesn't provide the same look as colorful rows and tumbling piles of books in varying sizes and ages. Plus, who's going to sign your digital copy? How will you replicate the surprise you may experience when you buy a used book and it shows up as a signed copy?? ('The Prox Transmissions' was a fun and fast read with or without extra scribbles on the front cover, but they were certainly a welcomed addition) Late night wood stove loading is a repeat of the early morning routine, with one final stash being cranked up and left at a safe and stable temperature. At this point I am usually tired and needing something to keep me awake on stove watch anyhow, plus finishing out the night with a little book browsing next to a toasty fire isn't the worst way to end your day. If you don't have a wood stove to babysit, you can substitute this task with another necessary halt in your day. I tend to let the weather dictate much of my forever lengthy to-do list. Reading seems to find its way into that list more often on the fouler days, but for some folks, fairer weather may encourage more reading - outside, that is. It all depends on whether you have a mountain of dishes to tackle or a mountain of chicken poop to move. And even if you have both, we all have to stop and eat... so settle down with that egg salad sandwich and turn those pages, c a r e f u l l y. (Books pictured and referenced are Barefoot Hearted by Kathleen Meyer, Ghost Rider by Neil Peart, The Prox Transmissions by Dustin Bates, Auto Biography by Earl Swift, and Flint by Charles Norris)
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Tales of Douglas Furr (and his friends)narrated by Crissy Clossin Archives
February 2024
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