Hygge Your Reading Experience
Everything about this cold and dark season makes us want to stay inside and read. Luckily, we can dedicate our evenings and weekends to the coziest of hobbies. But when your cozy hobby is also your year-round hobby, how do you winterize it? Before you take a snow shuffle to your TBR, give our hygge reading recommendations a look! Our list is full of heavy hardcovers, the weighted blanket of books, as well as the perfect hygge companion for each recommendation.
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live by Joan Didion
Joan Didion’s collected non-fiction is perfect for winter. Not only is it the size and weight of a brick with paper thin pages that you would be terrified to take out into the elements, even in the summer, it’s also largely about Didion’s life in Southern California, giving your brain a mental break from the cold. Unless you’re also in Southern California. In which case, this book is a time machine. Pair Didion’s work with your most treasured quilt and settle in for the entire weekend. If you’re looking for something to break up the books within We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, check out the Netflix documentary about Didion’s life: The Center Will Not Hold. (It also happens to pair nicely with a handmade quilt.)
Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound
The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 1: 1940 – 1956 by Sylvia Plath
Nothing pairs better with candles than the long-lost letters of a favorite author. Cozy up with The Letters of Sylvia Plath and pour over the gorgeous prose that resides within these pages. (They make every single one of our email correspondences look like a piece of garbage, that’s for sure.) The first volume in this collection is a hefty 1,424 pages. Yes, you read that right. It’s the perfect winter project – and we love that. Scour Etsy for some Sylvia Plath-themed candles for an extra on brand hygge experience. Bonus points if you have a working fireplace.
Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Indiebound
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron de Hart
There’s no better time to dive into a 752-page biography of our favorite Supreme Court justice than the wee small hours of winter. This tome is better than Notorious RBG and On the Basis of Sex combined – though we can’t guarantee a step by step workout regimen in this one, and Marty Ginsburg is, unfortunately, not played by the perfect Armie Hammer. Okay, maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life is part of a powerful trio, one that’s best read when the days are short and the loose-leaf tea is flowing freely. So break out your favorite RBG mug (we know you have one), put on the kettle, and start reading.
Buy the book:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound
Monster, She Wrote by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson
You know those warm socks that your mom gets for you every Christmas and every year you think that your sock drawer can’t possibly hold more? Now is the time to pull those puppies out and make your feet super happy! The key to reading about the godmothers of horror and speculative fiction is warm feet. Because you don’t want to accidentally scare yourself touching the cold floor. Plus, warm feet are the best way to stay super cozy during this prime reading season. Meet the women writers who bucked gender roles and defied convention in Monster, She Wrote. It might even inspire you to write a spooky winter novel of your own!
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