On a snowy afternoon, get lost in a good book…

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On a snowy afternoon, get lost in a good book…

“Winter is the time for comfort…it is the time for home”.  Edith Sitwell.

It’s happening – the days are getting shorter; the weather is getting colder and summer already feels like a distant memory.  Winter is here.  Sitting here at the Toronto Writers’ Centre I cannot really complain about winter.  Compared to the rest of Canada, Toronto has a relatively mild winter (remind me I said that when the driveway needs shoveling).  However, winter is also beautiful.  I must admit that I love the look of the fresh snow blanketing the ground and frosting the trees.  It’s a beautiful time to take a walk in a wintry wonderland

Ever wonder why we call it winter?  Winter derives from the Proto-Gemanic “wentruz”, meaning winter.  This most likely derives from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) “wed” meaning “wet”.  Although I don’t recall a rainy winter, unless you live in and around Vancouver. The speakers of Germanic languages, like most of the Indo-Europeans, reckoned years by winters.   People and animals would be “one winter old” when noting their age.  To cite a parallel: there exists in English the word “twinter” which refers to sheep, ox, horse or cattle being two years old.  Consider also Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 2, which begins: “When 40 winters have besieged thy brow” …

Winter is a cozy time, a time to curl up beside the fire on a snowy afternoon and get lost in a good book.  It’s a favourite pastime of mine, when the snow quiets everything down, the light is soft and a good story beckons.  So, whether you are 10 winters old, or 40 or 75, you can always nestle into your favourite chair on a snowy day and enjoy a good book.

Books I enjoyed in 2018:

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Educated by Tara Westover

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Improvement by Joan Silber

Still Water by Amy Stuart,  a TWC alumna.

Here are some of the books that are being adapted into movies for 2019. Let’s look forward to these!

Literary Adaptation Preview

Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy Holiday season and all the best for 2019.

 

 

By | 2019-02-08T11:43:11+00:00 December 21st, 2018|Books, General, Uncategorized, Writers|0 Comments

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