Top Ten Books I've Read On Long Winter Trips

1. The Bell by Iris Murdoch.

This intriguing novel revolves around saints and sinners and hypocrites and lovers and combines religious fervor with erotic abandon, gothic mystique with philosophical tomfoolery. The bell of the title is a mythical, witch-cursed icon that may or may not be buried at the bottom of a lake. This novel leaves indelible images in the mind and nobody but Iris can bring so many disparate characters to life in such bizarre, yet strangely believable settings. It will make you want to discover abandoned monasteries on some fog-drenched English moor.

2. Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene.

Greene was one of the few authors who was able to capture both the political and spiritual tragedies of the 20th century and also weave entertaining, thrilling and often humorous capers. This novel by Greene is a picaresque romp in the company of a septugenarian world-traveller, full of spies and intrigue and trains. Highly recommended especially if you're just getting into Greene and can read this book while traveling on a train.

3. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham.

This is Cunningham's futuristic, surreal and haunting homage to New York City and Walt Whitman, featuring a trio of interconnected novels that all riff on Leaves Of Grass and the majesty and mystery of Old and New New York. I read it in New York during a cold, whiskey-soaked winter and it made Central Park truly come to life.

4. The Geography Of The Imagination by Guy Davenport.

If you're like me and you love nothing more than reading and studying literature, this book is a must have. A collection of 40 spirited essays that discuss the works of everyone from to Spinoza and Tolkien to Eudora Welty and Marriane Moore while also tying in Ancient History, art criticism, poetics and historical anecdote. Davenport might be one of the smartest and finest writers that nobody has heard about.

5. Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortazar.

The great Argentine magical-realist magician creates some of the most hilarious and oddball short stories I've read. His secret is his deadpan, mater-of-fact delivery married to his poet's love of language, not to mention the fact that he appears to be having a great deal of fun. Ideal for reading on some remote island beach, while kids who don't speak your language set paper lanterns ablaze and send them soaring into the night sky.

6. For The TIme Being by Annie Dillard.

I always read parts of this towards the end of the year, when the darkness is long, when everyone is rushing around eating, drinking and fighting off loneliness. It is an elegant and heart-wrenching aphoristic book of philosophical speculation about the transience of life and the brief beauties and mysteries that keep us sane while also blowing our minds. Dillard has the voice of some prophetic poet and the heart of a secular mystic, while also all the bittersweet wisdom of somebody who has been out in the world and lived.

7. Collected Prose by Paul Auster.

Many are familiar with Auster's fictions but Auster is also equally adept at the essay form and this voluminous collection testifies to his passion for French literature, adventure and all the marvels and mishaps of the literary life. Includes his moving memoir The Invention of Solitude among other stand-outs.

8. Please Kill Me: The Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil.

For pure vicarious bliss, this is a riveting oral history of the American origins of punk before it was made corporate by the Sex Pistols. Full of the legendary and often horrific hi jinks of Iggy Pop, Richard Hell, The Dead Boys and Johnny Thunders, among other depraved luminaries.

9. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I was late getting to this, but I have to say I haven't come across such an intelligent, suspenseful, haunting and emotionally wrenching "thriller" in years. Especially if you went to liberal arts school, entertained fanciful notions of literature and paganism and wanted to wrench some mythical meaning out of the humdrumness of ordinary life, this book is for you. Mind you, it is also a cautionary tale. Perfect for autumn train rides through New England!

10. Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It by Geoff Dyer.

Cursed with the most misleading title of all time, this book is actually a humorous collection of deadbeat travel essays where the author, the genre-defying Mr. Dyer travels to remote places and very little in the way of inspiration or adventure or peace of mind happens to him. What does happen to him, though, is hilarious and beautifully-rendered. This book makes me think you can go places and do nothing and it's perfectly fine because the world keeps on spinning and nobody's the wiser.