Every year, around the first cold week, readers write to ask what they should read when the evenings close in. This is my answer for 2026: twelve books, chosen not because they are new but because they are worth the long nights.
For the first snow
Start with something enormous. A long Russian novel, a family saga that spans three generations, or a history of a single river. The point is to commit — to choose a book you cannot finish in a weekend.
A winter book should be heavy enough to hold you in your chair.
For the grey middle
January asks for lighter company: essay collections you can open anywhere, letters between old friends, and at least one book of poems kept on the kitchen table.
For the thaw
End with something that points outward — a travel memoir, a field guide to birds you have never noticed, a cookbook that smells of spring. The full list, with notes on each title, is waiting for subscribers in this Sunday’s letter.
