25 Classic Winter Books to Read by the Fire

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It's December, which means there's no better activity then curling up by a fire (or a virtual fireplace) with a classic read.

In 1981, writer and professor Noel Perrin wrote in the Washington Post about winter reading, saying, one of the best types of winter reading is "what I would call binge-reading: a one-to- two-day period when you do nothing but lie around and read a single huge book. Winter invites that. Since it's mostly dark and cold outside, there is not the same incentive to be up and doing that there is the rest of the year. On a weekend morning, there may not even be much incentive to get out of bed. The solution (provided you don't have small children) is once in a while not to. Spend the whole weekend in bed."

This type of reading is best suited to classics—and it doesn't feel right, in our humble opinion, to be reading books set in scorching hot summer weather in the dead of winter. Therefore, we rounded up our favorite classic winter books to read—with the criteria that the book has to be set (at least in part) during the winter months. (If you're searching for specifically holiday books for a festive read, or just generally cozy books, we have you covered as well.) Here, 25 of the best classic winter books to read by the fire:

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Italo Calvino's postmodernist novel is a masterfully crafted puzzle. It begins with you, the reader, trying to read a book called If On a Winter's Night a Traveler. What follows are 22 chapters, with every odd chapter being about you, the reader. It begins: "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveller. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room..."

Ethan Frome

One of Edith Wharton's greatest works is Ethan Frome, about a poor farmer (Ethan Frome) living in New England with his wife, Zeena. When they hire Zeena's cousin, Mattie, he finds himself falling for her. This cover illustration evokes the winter vibe of the novel, where Ethan has been "in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away," and winter is much of the setting for the story.

Read more: A Guide to all of Edith Wharton's Novels and Novellas

Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery

Agatha Christie is the undisputed queen of mystery, and this Midwinter Murder collection brings together her best winter-themed whodunits. The subtitle calls them "Fireside Tales" and we couldn't agree more.

Read more: The Best Agatha Christie Books, According to Agatha Christie

Disappearing Earth

One of the more recent books on this list, Disappearing Earth is set in the far-flung Kamchatka peninsula in Russia, where two young sisters go missing. The book unfolds through different POVs of Kamchatka residents over the year-long search for the sisters, and it's a mesmerizing, thrilling story of violence in a remote region.

Snow Country

In an isolated mountain onsen (hot spring) town in Japan, Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo dilettante, meets Komako, a lowly geisha. Their doomed love affair plays out over the story. When author Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize, it was one of the three novels cited.

The Snow Child: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize in Letters: Fiction Finalists)

In 1920 Alaska, recent arrivals Jack and Mabel arrive to create a homestead. During the first snowfall of the season, they make a child out of snow—the next morning, their creation is gone, but a blonde-haired girl named Faina appears in the woods. Author Eowyn Ivey was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for this book.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Chronicles of Narnia are a classic of children's literature for a reason, but particularly fitting for our winter books reading list is the first book published in the series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Narnia is stuck in frozen eternal winter and four children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy set out to save the land.

Anna Karenina (Wordsworth Classics)

If you're looking for a winter literature classic, your best bet will typically be Russian literature—including the great Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There are beautiful descriptions of winter in the book, including when Anna is on the train back to St. Petersburg. "At first she was unable to read. To begin with, she was bothered by the bustle and movement; then, when the train started moving, she could not help listening to the noises; then the snow that beat against the left-hand window and stuck to the glass, and the sight of a conductor passing by, all bundled up and covered with snow on one side, and the talk about the terrible blizzard outside, distracted her attention..."

Snow Falling on Cedars

In 1954 on San Piedro Island, a (fictional) isolated location north of Puget Sound, Carl, a local fisherman, is found drowned and Kabuo, a Japanese American war veteran, is charged with his murder. The trial is held in December, during a snowstorm, and it unearths the town's anti-Japanese sentiments from World War II, and it's told through the lens of the trial and flashbacks to wartime.

Winter: A Novel (Seasonal Quartet)

The second novel in Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet is set in winter. As the publisher writes, "When four people, strangers and family, converge on a fifteen-bedroom house in Cornwall for Christmas, will there be enough room for everyone? Winter. It makes things visible. Ali Smith’s shapeshifting Winter casts a warm, wise, merry and uncompromising eye over a post-truth era in a story rooted in history and memory and with a taproot deep in the evergreens, art and love."

A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

If "classic winter read" means "Christmas" to you, there's no better option than reading Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, about Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by the spirits of Christmases past, present, and future.

Read more: The 25 Best Holiday Books for a Festive Read

The Shining

Stephen King's horror novel The Shining is a definitive winter read, as it is set during wintertime when Jack takes a winter caretaker position at the remote Overlook Hotelin the Rocky Mountains.

Doctor Zhivago

Another Russian winter classic is Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, about the titular Zivago who has his family leave Moscow during the Russian Revolution.

Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel

In this post-apocalyptic novel, winter is coming in a small Anishinaabe community in northern Canada, but when the reserve loses power and is cut out from the outside world, they must figure out how to survive.

Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

Agatha Christie's best winter tales are on this list—but no list of winter classics would be complete without one of her best-known works, Murder on the Orient Express, where the famous Orient Express is stopped by a snowstorm and a murder of a millionaire takes place. Detective Hercule Poirot then sets out to find the killer aboard the train.

In the Midst of Winter: A Novel

During a snowstorm in Brooklyn, Richard, a university professor accidentally hits Evelyn's car, who is undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. This small event soon turns into a larger story, with Evelyn showing up at Richard's home seeking help, and he ropes in his tenant, Lucia, an academic from Chile, to assist and the three end up on a road trip.

The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th Anniversary Edition

Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning feminist science fiction novel is about the icebound planet of Winter, "a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid."Genly, a human ambassador, is sent there, to facilitate the planet's inclusion in an intergalactic civilization.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

John le Carré's famous spy thriller isn't explicitly a winter book, but the title definitely evokes wintertime, so we're counting it. The story follows British agent Alec Lemas who is sent to East Germany as a faux defector.

A Girl in Winter

This 1947 novel by Philip Larkin follows the story of Katherine, a library assistant, living in exile in a small English town in the early 1940s.

Migrations

Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is the story of Franny Stone, an Irish-Australian woman who wants to track the last flight of the Arctic terns — birds who migrate from the North Pole to Antarctica. She ends up on a fishing ship led by an eccentric captain, Ennis, and they follow the birds south.

Winter's Tale

One winter night on the Upper West Side, Peter, a middle-aged Irish burglar, attempts to rob a fortresslike mansion. He thinks its empty, but the millionaire's daughter, Beverly, is home—and soon, this unlikely duo falls in love.

Smilla's Sense of Snow

Smilla Qaaviqaaq Jaspersen, who is from Greenland, is now living in Copenhagen, and befriends a young boy named Isaiah. When his sudden death occurs, Smilla is convinced there was foul play, so she begins to investigate.

The Snow Was Dirty

Frank, 19, is a thief living under military occupation, and, as the publihsers writes, "during a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return."

Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition

Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers, is about George, an elderly clock repairman, who is on his deathbed.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Winter is coming... George R.R. Martin's epic A Song of Ice and Fire saga begins with Game of Thrones, where Eddard Stark rules Winterfell. As fans of the TV show know, there are so many plots and characters, but the Starks (and Jon Snow) at Winterfell is a key one—and a classic winter tale this reason

Read more: A Guide to the Game of Thrones Books

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