Five Weeks and Two Days

Prepare the reading couch! My winter break is here. Naturally I'll have final exams to grade, but I'll wait until after Christmas for that. I'm hoping for snow and cold and more snow.

Right now I have a passionate ambition to be a recluse. I hope to indulge this desire for several days. Lovely!

I need lots and lots of time to sit and write and reflect. Late December is perfect for this activity. Dark afternoons, dark mornings, candlelight, a fire, warm dog by my feet, yum.

Books: I've been reading The Winter of the Lions by Jan Costin Wagner, a German crime novelist. This title is, I think, the third book in the series featuring Kimmo Joentaa, a Finnish police detective. Part of the problem I seem to be having with the book is that there aren't enough setting details so that I can fully picture the action. As a reader, I seem to need much, much more in the way of setting, so it's been slow going for me. I'd like to try another Wagner crime novel because his books are supposed to be so "atmospheric." I won't make a judgement on this author until I read another book.

At this moment I don't have any idea what I'd like to read next, although I am anxious to read Ian Frazier's book about traveling in Siberia.