Seasonal Affective Disorder - it's a Killer!

I'm not a fan of winter. It depresses me to see the sun go down in the afternoon, to see endless white and gray where green and colors used to be. No matter how many layers I wear, I'm always cold - or within memory of cold. I can stand in front of a hot radiator, soaking up the heat, but the sound of the wind whistling outside will still make me shiver. I think I'm part bear, primed to hibernate through the long winter and wake up when the bulbs start to bloom.



Winter finds me watching more TV than usual (mystery shows, of course), but in winter I always read a lot, too. Even when I'm tired, I'll stay up into the wee hours to finish a book.

I'm not a great one for self-analysis, but I've come to realize I respond to winter in specific ways.



1) When it's cold outside, I start compulsively solving Sudokos (sometimes giving myself a headstart by filling in a few blanks with the help of the solved puzzles at the end of the book. It's not a competition, I remind myself.) And lately I've started doing the USA Today crossword puzzles online, too. Why am I drawn to puzzles in winter? It's a mystery.

2) And speaking of mysteries, they are my go-to reads in winter months. I read pretty much anything, but my favorites are mysteries and romance. While conscientiously updating my Shelfari shelf, I noticed that I've been reading a lot more mysteries lately, with romance slipping behind. Maybe it's because all my favorite romance authors have spring releases - but that's not the case.  It's a puzzle.

So why do solving puzzles, playing number games and pretending to be a literary Miss Marple help me survive the cold and snow? Why am I drawn by murder and mayhem instead of cute little snowmen?

I haven't figured that out yet. Do any of you change your reading habits season by season?

I'm naturally more of a Pollyana than a Scrooge, but winter definitely makes me whine and winge. If you grump through winter the way I do, what helps you while away the days until the warm weather returns?

The end of February is usually a time of celebration for me - I am happy to see the sun sticking around a little longer each day, but right now I have no confidence March will be much warmer than it is now.

In the meantime, I have more mysteries in my waiting-to-be-read pile. At this rate, I might whittle that pile down to a reasonable size before the tulips bloom.


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