What to read?

I'm seeking recommendations. I haven't read any good books lately, in fact I've read hardly anything.

Tonight is bitter and blustery. I came home with cold, wet feet. I'm about to pour a hot bath, an indulgence I rarely take. Scrounging around the place for a good novel to dig into, I find nothing new. This must be rectified on the weekend.

So suggest something. Here is a guideline: I want to depart from my habitual reading—fantasy and Southern Ontario gothic—and try something different, preferably fiction that is not too escapist.

Because for the first time in more than a decade, I don't have to consider so carefully about spending money on a book.

Here's a shot from the drive home again today. I passed through blizzards interspersed with sunshine, both morning and afternoon. In other parts of the province, people were warned to stay home. We're getting such severe weather because the Great Lakes haven't frozen this year (this is abnormal), and cold air passing over the warm surface stirs up instability and heavy precipitation. The temperature today is barely milder than yesterday.

Busa's metaphor table

This exercise, suggested by Christopher Busa and referenced recently by lisalemonjello, has been tugging for attention.

Choose 3 key words that are resonant for you. Place each at the head of their own column and generate about 20 word associations for each keyword. Here you are at the mercy of your unconscious which enjoys toying with you and may lead you down incongruous paths....The page will evolve into clusters.

( Associations table )

Several clusters to work with:
1. sediment, primordial, unconscious
2. quest, famine, responsibility
3. power, addiction, bacchanal