Reading retreats Archives

boy in brown and white plaid hoodie shirt sitting beside a christmas tree holding a stack of books — Photo by Elina Fairytale on Pexels.com

The Weekly Wrap: December 14-20

A Reading Holiday?

Our consumer economy wants us to spend the day after Christmas shopping after-Christmas sales. But I came across a good counter-suggestion yesterday. Jamie E. Davis is the genius behind “Because All The Books,” one of my favorite sites for bookish memes. Yesterday, she posted one that said, “I think the day after Christmas should be officially declared a reading holiday.” While I love the idea, I think there is little chance of that happening. However, the U.S. President just spoke of making the days before and after Christmas federal holidays. While he is not a great fan of reading, it doesn’t mean we can’t make the day after our reading holiday.

There are good reasons to do this. Many of us readers are introverts. All the holiday visits, fun as they are, mean extroverting. The last thing we need is all the crowds at the sales! We’re ready to curl up and read!

Then, there are the new books we received as gifts, or the ones we bought while gift-buying. They are calling!

But, you may say, “I didn’t get any books, just some gift cards burning a hole in my pocket!” The last thing I want is singed clothing, so if you can’t wait, go ahead (and often you can do this online on a reading break). But if it means a trip to a bookstore, I always find it more relaxing when there aren’t too many people around, especially in my favorite sections.

Above all, I like the idea that Christmas just begins on Christmas Day. Remember the twelve days of Christmas, which end January 6. Why not give yourself the gift of a reading holiday?

Five Articles Worth Reading

“The Pamphlet That Has Roused Americans to A c tion for 250 Years” explores why Thomas Paine’s Common Sense has continued to be read.

Henry James often wrote of the magic of Venice. Departing from her usual writing, Anne Applebaum retraced his steps and discovered that the city, facing inundation, still has that magic. “Henry James’s Venice Is Still Here” is a delightful photo essay of her journeys.

Literary Hub is one of my sources for thoughtful writing on all kinds of books. If you’ve not discovered this online resource, “The Most Popular Lit Hub Stories of 2025” is a great place to start. And if you do follow Literary Hub, it is a great recap of this year in books.

A new short story by J.R.R. Tolkien has just been published, The Bovadium Fragments. It’s a satire rooted in Tolkien’s deep seated aversion to motor vehicles. Christian Kriticos reviews it in “Isengard in Oxford.”

Finally, The Public Domain Review posted Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Christmas Sermon, piblished in pamphlet form in 1900, six years after his death. No matter your religious persuasion, I think you will like his ideas.

Quote of the Week

john Greenleaf Whittier was born December 17, 1809. He remarked:

“When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead.”

This quote reminds me of the question Jesus asks, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve been reading Louis Markos’ Passing the Torch. It is an argument for an educational curriculum for youth built around the classics and other great books as well as the trivium and quadrivium. I’m conscious of how these elements were not part of my childhood education and of my unsystematic efforts to make up for this deficit as an adult. He also helps me understand the growing movement of classical education in both Christian and secular contexts. I hope he will offer some critique as well as affirmation before he finishes.

Manitou Canyon is the 15th book in William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series. In some ways, it strikes me as a parable of the consequences of when we cede the implementation of technology to those who will most profit from it.

I posted about this earlier this year but Publishers Weekly reminded me in “Last Call for Mass Market Paperbacks” that the death of the mass market paperback is upon us. I wonder if some of those classics will become collectors items?

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Gordon Fee and Cherith Fee Nordling, The Kingdom of God is Among You

Tuesday: Michael Grunwald, We Are Eating the Earth

Wednesday: Gerald L. Bray, Athens and Jerusalem

Thursday: Audrey Davidheiser, Grieving Wholeheartedly

Friday: Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 14-20.

My best wishes to you all for your holiday celebrations, including that reading holiday!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Library Shed, Source: iVillage

Many of us readers share a house with people we love. Love is nurtured in conversations, the sharing of household chores, and if we are parents with children, caring for those children. All important, and hard to do, and read at the same time.

Some of our homes are too small to get away and read, isolated from family life. Either one gets up early in the morning, or hides out in the bathroom. We dream of sitting rooms, dens, and “man caves.”

Another solution is gaining popularity. A number of people are looking at the humble backyard shed and turning it into a retreat. Women have created a “She Shed” movement captured on a number of episodes of the Today show. Here’s an early one on how “she sheds” have become the alternative to the man cave.

Bibliophiles have noticed. Gail A. Sisolak portrays some drop-dead gorgeous back yard sheds turned into libraries that includes the image featured above. One “he shed” in this blog post has over 12,000 volumes–in a shed! Others combine one’s library with comfort and beauty–light and good seating within, and a beautiful garden outside the shed door and windows.

I haven’t seen anything about sheds in northern climates or humid climates. We don’t tend to think about heating, cooling, and de-humidifying sheds, but for comfort and avoiding mustiness, library shed owners have to think about such things, unless it is just a seasonal retreat.

Some people are do-it-yourselfers. One of the bestselling books on building sheds is She Sheds: A Room of Your Own. There are sequels to this book, how to’s from companies like Black and Decker and more. There are a number of instructional videos and websites online.

Or you can go the store-bought route. There are rock bottom priced tiny sheds available at big box stores for $600. Most run between $2,000 and $8,000. You still want to see whether these are pre-assembled or whether “some assembly is required.”

Whichever route you go, you will need to think about climate control for both you and your books, something not included in most utility sheds. Then there are questions of shelving, carpeting, lighting and seating and other amenities. But you’ve probably been dreaming about what you’d do if you have such space.

Before you start your project there are a few sign offs. One is your family–it is the kind of expenditure everyone has to agree on, maybe with some discussion of how the family will share this retreat. The other is your local zoning and building permitting regulations, which differ from place to place.

With the pandemic, we are spending more time at home than usual, more time around each other. More space, particularly for a quiet hour of reading, may be a gift for family members who are tired of overhearing Zoom calls or need to get away from streamed videos. It’s a way to buy a bit more space for everyone and perhaps a bit more storage space for your books. Maybe this is the year you build your library shed.