Waiting out the rest of winter can be gruelling, but it’s a little easier with the fiery minds of Proust, Flaubert, Woolf and Tolstoy.
These are just some of the authors waiting for you at the library when their winter reading program, ‘Warm up with the classics? starts this month.
‘We’re trying to encourage people to come to the library and read, to get them reading some great literature,? said Beth Sheridan, the adult services librarian who heads up the program.
Not only do you get the gift of reading great books, but you can also earn prizes along the way like gift baskets of hot chocolate and candles.
The big prize at the end of the program is an invitation-only tour of the Scripps Mansion.
The program runs from January through March. Readers can register at the adult reference desk at the Orion library or online.
Here’s how the program works:
~When you come to the library, you will receive a punch card
~For each book read, come to the library and have the card marked
~While the theme is classics, you will get credit for anything you read, but classics get you more: 2 punches for a classics, 1 punch for other books
~Prizes will be awarded after reading 2, then 4, then 8 books
~Readers who complete book 8 by the last day of March will receive a ticket to a special invitation-only dessert buffet and tour of the historic Scripps Mansion.
Sheridan said the cold season is the best time to catch up on the classics.
‘In the winter, people have more time to spend inside, curled up with a book,? she said. ‘We try to make it fun by earning prizes.?
Some of the classics the library is recommending are:
~A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
~Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
~The Plague by Albert Camus
~Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
~The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
~Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
~On the Road by Jack Kerouac
To sign up, visit the Orion Township Public Library at 825 Joslyn Road, call them at 248-693-3000, or visit them on the Web at www.orionlibrary.org.

– Editor’s Choice –
Here are some of my own favorite classic titles you may want to ‘check out? this winter for the reading program.
~A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
~Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
~Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
~War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
~The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
~Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
~Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
~The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
~The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
~To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf