Elysian Fields' records set the ideal mood for reading a good book by a fireplace--among other things. Any interesting books, stories, or news you've read lately that have really made you sit and think?

For me, if I'm reading a really good book, I usually can't have music on. I like silence. Sometimes I can read with some classical music, but I find myself putting my book down often, if I do. But reading by the fireplace, yes, a great joy. Fires in general, yes. Fire plus music, delicious. Fire plus sitting and staring at flame with a great wine, heaven. News doesn't excite me. In fact, it upsets me. When Oren and I lived together, he wouldn't let me watch the news. I feel a weird responsibility to get a swig of it now and again, but when I do, I find it draining and upsetting usually. Once we detach ourselves from things they become 'news,’ when we remove ourselves, we remove our empathy and build up an immunity to the horrors of the world.

Shutting them out of course doesn't make them go away, but feeding on them like gawkers at car wrecks doesn't help either. It is just a reminder to keep creating with a force of love and beauty and humanity at its core. I am just finishing the book Lives Like Loaded Guns, a new book about the legacy of Emily Dickinson and her work. I like reading about people that were inspired, people that are inspiring to me, people whose greatest weapons are their imaginations and their bursting hearts. I like smart fiction, things that reflect real lives or fantastic lives. I like books on thought and history, the mind and spirit, philosophies, cultural anthropologies...

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2011/02/an-interview...an-fields-by-florenz-cruz.html