It's only mid-August, definitely still summer, yet the first whiffs of fall are already in the air. Nights are a touch darker and cooler, the edges of garden leaves begin to blight and brown. Back-to-school machinery cranks and squeaks, and we begin to fatten up and hunker down. 

It ought be sad, but fall is welcome in Berryland, because cooler temperatures perk me up like Botox, and oh, what glorious months we'll have before there's any real reason for antidepressants. I was always the kid who couldn't wait to go back to school with shiny new pencils and sneakers. My birthday lands in early September, too, which gives the month a magic luster. 

The fading of the year dredges up all my nostalgic impulses, and nowhere do I see this more than in my autum reading appetites. My sights turn backward to books that brought cozy comfort long ago. Generally the books I reach for were written long ago, and possibly set even further back into the past. Books that might be tiresome in April become welcome November friends. Gone is any pretense at reading the "right" kinds of books, or even reading challenging, complex books. I look for books that will stroke old feelings, make me laugh, sweep me away with romance, persuade me that all's right with the universe. Books full of auld lang syne. Books I've read before, so I can re-enjoy the ending. And that goes for mysteries, too. I'm empty-headed enough to have read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd twice w/o remembering who the killer was.  

The beloved British classics are a good place to start, but so are Wodehouse, Pratchett, Christie, all of them warm mental pudding. What else shall I read this fall?  Haven't decided.  I probably won't have time for anywhere near as much of this snug reading as I'd like.  How 'bout you?  What do you want to read in the fall? Got any fall-y titles to recommend?