Stormy Weather Reading

This past Saturday we were supposed to have a storm. I was in between books and even though I had a TBR stack that I was supposed to be reading, nothing was appealing to me. I decided to peruse my shelves for a reread, one of those comfort reads that I have probably read a dozen times. I ran my fingers over the Chronicles of Narnia, The Blue Castle, Anne of Green Gables, but nothing seemed quite right. I browsed some more while thinking deep thoughts, and then it struck me. Those are all books that I consider vacation reads. There is no logic to it but all of those books are ones I either tend to take camping or read over Christmas vacation and none of them seemed like stormy weather reads to me. So what makes a book a stormy weather read? For me it came down to atmosphere. I love storms and I wanted to read something that matched what was going on outside. So here are just a few of my suggested stormy weather reads.

I don't know about you but stormy weather seems to scream MYSTERIES! Especially British mysteries for some reason...? But the first book that seemed to fit was The Moor by Laurie R. King, this is book number 4 in the Mary Russell series. Something about the wild atmosphere and the way the moor seems to take on a personality of its own made this book seem especially appropriate but of course, being a purist, I recommend starting at the beginning of the series with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Even though I passed over The Blue Castle and Anne of Green Gables, the Emily books by L.M. Montgomery seemed like stormy weather reads. I'm not sure I can defend my logic on this one but for some reason these books just seem to have a slightly darker and more melancholic feeling to them. Also, if you've never read them, what's wrong with you?

The last thing that seemed appealing was A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Talk about a dark and stormy read! I highly suggest that if you haven't read at least the first four books in this series that you get to them before Netflix releases Season 1 on January 13th. You can bet I will be rereading them in the next couple months. (SO EXCITED!!!)

And even though I didn't actually consider these on Saturday, I'm pretty sure that The Lord of the Rings is that magical series that manages to fall in the categories of both vacation reads AND stormy weather reads...only J.R.R. Tolkien...


What are your thoughts on mood reading? Do different books appeal to you when it is stormy out?