With winter break so close, you can't help but start to think about what you want to do with your friends and family when you are finally free and at home. But you're also exhausted, and so plan to spend the first twenty-four hours (or more) sleeping off your accumulated sleep deprivation. And sometimes all you want to do is curl up on the couch or in bed with a bunch of blankets and a good book. (Or if you're me, you want to read 24/7).

So if any of you need any suggestions, here's just a small peek at what's on my very long and ever-growing TBR (To Be Read) list, in no particular order. No idea how far I'll make it through, but it's two weeks, so hopefully some progress will be made. While I haven't read these and thus cannot give my opinion, I have read some of the authors' other works and enjoyed them. Most of the books listed here were recommended to me by friends, so at least some people can vouch for these reads.

1. Armadale by Wilkie Collins (1866)

Wilkie Collins is considered to be one of the first writers of detective novels, before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes. Collins' A Woman in White and The Moonstone were both amazing and intense reads, and I can't wait to dive into this one.

2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1855)

Amazon recommended this one to me, so I have no idea what to expect apart from the blurb that hinted at social class conflicts and complex relationships. Can you tell I like Victorian classics?

3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (1974)

Because we can all use a little more zen in our lives. I know nothing about this book apart from the fact that multiple people highly recommended it to me. Apparently it has very little to do with motorcycles.

4. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964)

I want to hear Hemingway's thoughts about being a new writer! 'Nough said.

5. The Queen's Necklace by Alexandre Dumas, père (1849)

Loved The Three Musketeers (and the three novels that follow D'Artagnan after that), so of course I need to dive into this one. It's loosely based on a scandal in the French court in the 1780s. I love history too, did I mention that?

6. 1984 by George Orwell (1949)

I admit, I have never read this before. Animal Farm, yes. But not 1984.

7. A Writer at War by Vasily Grossman (2006)

Grossman was a journalist and writer in Soviet Russia during the Second World War, and his notebooks have been complied here to give an account of what it was like to be with the Red Army.

8. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013)

Because I'm trying to read some things from the 21st century as well, as it has been pointed out to me that I read mostly things from the 1800s and occasionally the 1900s. And this has gotten so many rave reviews from so many people that I just have to know what's in store.

9. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)

See above note from The Goldfinch. Also, so many literary podcasts mention this book. I'm curious.

10. The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd (2004)

Because I love history and Rutherfurd's works. Add in the fact that I loved my recent trip to Ireland, and why wouldn't I read this book?

Well, there you go. It's eclectic with some themes that give away my preferred time periods or genres. But all of these, I hope, will make me enter a new world, tell me something I haven't considered before, reveal something I didn't know. So exciting!