Winter reading

My recent reading habits have been frustrated and frustrating. Last week, I re-read three Robin Hobb fantasy novels, and once finished, felt fairly unfulfilled. Usually I adore Robin Hobb. I tried 'A Confederacy of Dunces', which is usually ten kinds of brilliant, but just UNREADABLE when the temp gets below 5 degrees C. I know some readers yak on about how warming it is to read about sunny Jamaican summers and beach holidays in Thailand when the mercury is devastatingly low - but I respectfully don't get it.

As soon as I have to pull on an extra cardi and coax the dog onto my feet of a night, my sun-scorched American favourites - McCarthy, Faulkner, and any number of civil war epics - are quickly replaced by English classics. Maybe it's to do with drinking so much more tea in winter. Perhaps my cold weather clothes make me prudish, and I can't handle too much raunchiness or violence. I have no real wish to read about Arctic fishing or Soviet gulags, so I don't think the cold climate is the drawcard.

My reading list thus far...

Mariana by Monica Dickens: nearly the loveliest love-story-meets-coming-of-age novel I own, next to I Capture the Castle and The Pursuit of Love. It also has hunting in it, and a hard woman to hounds, stirring childhood memories of hand-me-down 1940s pony books.

A Room With a View by E.M. Forster: A bit silly, but a bit lovely at the same time. I really need to search out a Bill Amberg for Penguin edition oneday: http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/penguin_sets/billamberg_collection.html

And, of course...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (can't get those little dots, dammit...): I'm up to the bit where Jane throws a preachy tantrum and runs away from Thornfield. It's a silly, soppy novel, but I love the characters, the gothic tropes, and of course, the Ending.

Next on the agenda...

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber: This will be yet another re-read, but a necessary one, as I'm going to pre-order the miniseries from UK-land as soon as my bank account recovers from last week's horse-related splurge.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: Not a re-read, very much looking forward to reading. Doesn't quiiiiite fit in comfort lit category, but I think it'll go down just dandy with a cup of tea and a delicious biscuit.