Reading Seasonally

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits. It’s a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. Details on suggesting topics and downloading the official header images, as well as an updated archive with the latest topics can be found on Aria’s blog.

If you read my post yesterday about Autumn in Venice, you probably have an inkling how I’m going to respond to this week’s topic. And if not, you’ll find out soon enough, so let’s dive right in!

Do you read seasonally?

Yes! I love to read books that fit with the season! Do I always do that? No, no I don’t. Because despite my best efforts at sticking to my TBRs, ultimately I’m just a mood reader at heart and sometimes I’m just not feeling what I had planned (I’m especially prone to this at the end of a season, when I’m longing for what the next season will bring) or I stumble on something new (or new-to-me) that blows up my plans because I’m too excited to wait. But I really do love how it feels to read books that perfectly fit the season, and a lot of my reading is seasonally inspired.

What’s your favorite season?

Tough call, as I truly love all the seasons and what they contribute to the cycles of nature and of life. But if pressed to choose, it would probably be a toss-up between Autumn and Spring. Super original, I know. But it’s true. I love the bright, breezy sunshine that, in Spring, brings with it the promises of budding opportunity, and I love the cool, crisp days of Autumn that deliver on those promises with a bountiful harvest. As a fiery type, I also love how even-keel the seasons of equinox feel. And as a reader, many of my favorite genres and books tend to be Spring or Autumn reads.

Do you have any favorite seasonal reads?

Yes! My favorites include both specific books that capture a particular season for me, as well as genres or categories of books that I enjoy reading during each season. Here are just a few examples:

Winter

• Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. The first time I read this classic was during a bitterly cold January, and it was the most wonderful experience, snuggling under blankets with hot tea or coffee while savoring every beat of the story. Maybe it’s cliché, but Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and their exploration of the human condition always feel right in the Winter.
• The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien. This novel is actually great in any season – truly, one of my all-time favorites! – but I love it best in the Winter, when, like Bilbo, all I want to do is sit in an armchair by the fire with a good book and a good meal (or two or three) and am instead called into an adventure that leaves me changed. Plus, this novel’s humor brings a lighter mood to what can sometimes otherwise be a bitter cold season.
• Cozy Mysteries. Winter is a great time for these whodunnits, where everyone is a suspect because everyone was in the same place at the same time and everyone had a motive. These are particularly good reads during a long holiday pent up with family. 😉

Spring

• Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This book captures so much of what Spring feels like to me: time spent in nature, budding friendships, childhood adventure and exploration, creative play, warmth and sunshine, and enthusiasm for all that life has to offer. Most childhood adventure novels, particularly those set outdoors, will fill this space for me each Spring, but this one was my first love in the genre.
• Nature-Inspired Nonfiction. Spring is a time for gardening and outdoor adventure; so for me, it is also a time for reading nonfiction about nature. This can be anything from learning how the foods we know and love today came to us (The Food Explorer, by David Fairchild), to understanding the obsession over feathers that led to the greatest natural history heist of the century (The Feather Thief, by Kirk Wallace Johnson), to books about foraging, gardening, nature journaling, or the ways geography or different animal or plant species have impacted communities over time.
• Poetry. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” No, man, compare me to the promise of a bright Spring morning, because that’s where it’s at, y’all. I read poetry throughout the year, but the happier, bubblier, lovelier stuff is always best read in Spring.

Summer

• Beach Reads. In the oppressive heat of Summer, what I want most is a breezy read, and often that translates into beachy romances. But really anything that can be read in a single sitting, while sipping a cold drink in the sun, will be a winner for me.
• Travel Memoirs, Road Trip Stories, and Novels Set Elsewhere. My favorite Summer reads are often memoirs or novels set in places I’d like to visit. Whether it’s renovating an Italian villa, road-tripping through our National Parks, or simply a novel set in a place I find interesting, books that give me a feeling of having traveled somewhere new are some of my go-to favorites during Summer.
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This classic evokes the extremes of Summer, with its sense of boredom-inspired debauchery, heat-driven madness, and underlying it all, the longing for some grand, larger-than-life adventure that rarely turns out to be the fairytale ending imagined. When I’m tired of breezy beach reads and travel stories, when it feels like the dog days of Summer have peaked and I’m ready to move into a new season, I sometimes turn to books like this.

Autumn

• Everything Obvious. Academic anything, whether dark or light. Witches and fae and forests and magic. Dark classics. Mysteries. Moody poetry. Seriously, everything obviously autumnal is up for grabs. Autumn is the time of year where I’m least likely to stray outside the season because there are so many great genres perfectly suited to this time of year. Want to know what I’m reading this year? Stick around! My October TBR is coming up soon!

What about you? Do you read seasonally?