As the football team continues to disappoint in the fourth quarter, winter break teases a less frustrating and well-earned fourth-quarter respite from academics. No class means resuming previously abandoned hobbies, just as the impending new year means forming resolutions of better habits, and both often mean a return to reading for fun.

After a semester of reading for class, the only way to hop back into the world of fiction is with a book you can’t put down until it’s done. The right winter read needs ambiance and complete and utter immersion — sometimes, just reading the book isn’t enough. 

Having accompanying music to enhance the vibe brings the reading experience to an entirely new level. With these next five novels, make sure to have Spotify — or, God forbid, Apple Music — open to their complimentary albums for the optimized reading experience.

“Mrs. Caliban” by Rachel Ingalls — “Melodrama” by Lorde

This bite-sized 1982 novel is filled to the brim with heartfelt absurdism. Despite boasting only 128 pages, Ingalls’ masterpiece tells the epic tale of Dorothy, a suffocating housewife, discovering and providing sanctuary for an escaped sea monster before sparking a whirlwind romance with him that inevitably ends in disaster. 

This novel’s dense, emotionally jam-packed nature begs for an album that can match its freak — look no further than Lorde’s 2017 showstopper, “Melodrama.” With the novel and album running alongside each other, the listener or reader will feel a sense of injustice from the world at their inability to live out their wildest fantasies that will be enough to a minimum of moving on from their ex or a maximum of challenging Cybertrucks on the interstate to race. 

“The Sanatorium” by Sarah Pearse  — “Submarine” by The Marías

Nothing gets the pages turning like a spooky asylum-turned-posh Swiss chalet. With a former detective as the narrator, Pearse’s hit thriller is the perfect read for anyone looking for an exciting yet horrifying read — ambient, intense and eerie, this novel’s isolated and snowy setting seeps through the pages.

The Marías recent album, “Submarine” goes blow for blow with “The Sanatorium’s” sense of snowy ambiance with lilting synths and otherworldly vocals. However, rather than enhancing the novel’s terror, the album’s gentle pace and fuzzy instrumentals would perfectly assuage any temptation to put “The Sanatorium” down out of terror.

“The Sirens of Titan” by Kurt Vonnegut  — “Para Mi” by Cuco

The intergalactic satire offers a slyly cartoonish “We Didn’t Start the Fire” take on science fiction that brings the bright colors and space optimism of the 1950s. The novel follows the richest man on Earth as he lives an odyssey of romance, interplanetary revolution and constant memory loss. With Vonnegut’s classic all-encompassing world-building style, the pages fly by, and it’s impossible to walk away from this novel with a neutral opinion. 

In order to complement this winter read, “The Sirens of Titan” requires a quirky audio companion with body and style. Cuco’s third album, “Para Mi,” offers exactly that: its tracks are cohesive with trippy production and colloquial lyrics that balance the album as a silly yet heartfelt group of songs talking about making your way through life with your eyes closed and hands out.

“The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1)” by Robert Jordan — “Wasteland, Baby!” by Hozier

For fans of high fantasy, Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series sports thorough worldbuilding and a strong ensemble of characters. Five people from a tiny village are thrust into a mythical plot centuries in the making to determine whether good or evil will prevail, with teenaged Rand Al-Thor at the center of it all in a Paul Atreides-esque twist of fate. 

Hozier’s folksiest album, “Wasteland Baby!” is the perfect companion piece to accompany readers through the journey of Jordan’s epic series. With his ability to tell mountain-moving tales with gentle instrumentals and the voice of an angel, there’s no one better to hold the hands of readers as they make their first venture into Jordan’s 14-book saga.

“’Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King — “At Folsom Prison” by Johnny Cash

Arguably, Stephen King’s spookiest novel, “’Salem’s Lot” is a genre-defying story surrounding a small town’s fight against creatures of the night — a war no one but a man and a boy realize they are losing. This book is the definition of unputdownable, as perspectives alternating between the voices of the vampire hivemind and the struggling protagonists, and the battles rage on. 

With the novel feeling like an old-timey Western stand-off between humans vs. vampires, the reading experience of King’s novel should only be emceed by none other than Johnny Cash charismatically riling up the residents of Folsom Prison in his 1968 live album, “At Folsom Prison.” This album will enhance the small-town mood and reinforce the classic David and Goliath struggle of a lone, wandering cowboy standing alone against the evil in others.