Winter: A Time For Classics

I always feel like the Winter is the best times to read classics. They bring a warmth and an idea of simpler times. I love getting lost in classics and escape from the hustle and chaos of modern life.

I like "textbook" classics as well as "modern" classics and I plan to read an assortment of each throughout the Winter months.

The classics that I have read so far are:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
This book is on a lot of people's TBR during the Christmas season.
It is the timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. A stingy and selfish man who does not care for Christmas. His dead business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him in spirit form and warns Ebenezer to change his ways, for Marley is now a prisoner in the afterlife. He carries around chains (the burdens of his selfish ways during his life). He warns Scrooge that he will be visited by 3 spirits in the near future. The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Future. Throughout these visits, he is made to see what caused him to become the miserable person that he is, as well as what the future holds if he does not change his ways. 

This story has always meant a lot to me. As a child, I watched the Mickey Mouse adaptation of the story and fell in love with it. 
The Dickens' story shows readers that despite a persons miserable current exterior, there was once a happy person, and there may be hope for that person to find some happiness again. It also tells me that sometimes in life, people need a good dose of reality before they are really able to see they error of their ways. 

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite writers. In this story we follow Douglas Spaulding and his brother Tom during the Summer of 1928. Douglas is realizing for the first time that he is "Alive". He is 12 and his brother 10, and they spend the summer helping their grandfather pick dandelions to make wine. Douglas faces the deaths of some important people in his world and then becomes ill himself and almost dies. He is thankful that he has survived and is learning to let go of the sadness from losing people. He realizes that older people are valuable as historians and can act as a sort of "Time Machine". He and his brother grow up, but they always remember the valuable lesson of that summer.

This was different from what Bradbury typically writes, but it was well done. There are some wonderful lessons throughout this book and a sense of nostalgia for me, being that I was very close to my grandparents and when they died, I was sad for a long time. But the memories I made with them are forever with me, and that is something that I am extremely grateful for.

There are also Classics that will be re-reads for me and some that are new to me. 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is a coming-of-age story set in Alabama. Racism is examined, as well as injustice and how children are affected by it.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This is a horror novel. Jackson is a newly discovered author that I am very interested in exploring further. The only thing I know about this is that it is about a haunted house, and that's kind of how I want to go into this. Blind.

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

This is historical fiction written during WWII. It follows a girl in Nazi Germany and books are being banned. Again, that's all I really need to know about it.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

This is a sci-fi collection of short stories tied together by "The Illustrated Man", an out of work ex-carnival freak show worker. 

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

A Science-Fiction classic about a human who was born on Mars, raised by Martians and comes to Earth to live.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This classic detective collection is one I am absolutely ecstatic about getting to!!

If anyone has any other suggestions for books to add to my Winter Classics List, please leave a comment!! Let me know if you plan on reading any classic Lit this winter season!