What to read over the Christmas break
The one undefended week of the year
There is exactly one week a year when nobody can reasonably ask you for anything. It sits between Christmas and New Year, it has no name, and most people spend it on a screen and then feel vaguely cheated by January.
It is the best reading week of the year and it is worth a small amount of planning.
Pick the book before the week starts
This is the whole trick. The week fails when it opens with forty minutes of browsing, because browsing is a screen activity and screens win.
Have the book physically present on the 23rd. Not on a list. In the house.
Pick one long one, not three short ones
Three short books across a week gives you three beginnings, and beginnings are the most effortful part of reading. One long book gives you one beginning and then five days of momentum, which is the actual pleasure and the thing you cannot get in an ordinary week.
If you have been carrying something around for years as "the one I should get to," this is the week it was waiting for.
Reread something
Unfashionable advice and the best I have. A reread asks nothing of you — no learning the characters, no deciding whether you like it — and winter is not the season for effort. It is the season for the thing you already know works.
Most people have one book they reread and feel faintly embarrassed about. That is the right book.
On being interrupted
You will be. It is a house with other people in it.
The readers who get the most out of this week are not the ones who defend it best; they are the ones who put the book down without resentment and pick it up twenty minutes later. A book you can re-enter easily beats a book you have to schedule around, which is one more argument for the reread.
For the week, and the chair it happens in:
Questions people ask
What should I read between Christmas and New Year?
Something long, chosen before the week starts, and physically in the house by the 23rd. One long book beats three short ones: three books means three beginnings, and beginnings are the effortful part.
Is rereading a waste of the holiday?
No — it is arguably the best use of it. A reread asks nothing of you, and the week is full of interruptions. A book you can re-enter easily beats one you have to schedule around.
Why does holiday reading so often fail?
Because it starts with browsing for something to read, and browsing is a screen activity. Deciding in advance is most of the battle.