I am the owner of a sort of mixed bag of a vanity project by the estimable (though occasional uneven) J.B. Priestley.
The book, published in 1951, is called Delight, and it is comprised of short vignettes – one hundred and fourteen of them – of things which gave Mr. Priestley deep (and often secret) joy.
Occasionally, when in need of a reminder of how many such delightful things the most ho-hum life contains, I dip into this book and read about Fountains and Cosy Planning and Orchestras Tuning Up and Waking to Smell Bacon, etc., and rejoice in my turn in those small goodnesses.
Here’s one I know we can all relate to, apropos of nothing in particular, as it isn’t currently storming – though it is a bit chilly outside – and once I venture out one last time to fill the greenhouse woodstove chock full of the biggest logs I can manhandle into it, my warm bed and a good book await me.
I hope your collective evenings contain a similar pleasure.
Enjoy!
Fifty-One
There is a peculiar delight, which I can still experience though I knew it best as a boy, in cosily reading about foul weather when equally foul weather is beating hard against the windows, when one is securely poised between the wind and rain and sleet outside and the wind and rain and sleet that leap from the page into the mind.
The old romancers must have been aware of this odd little bonus of pleasure for the reader, and probably that is why so many of their narratives, to give them a friendly start, began with solitary horsemen, cloaked to the eyebrows, riding through the night on urgent business for the Duke, sustained by nothing more than an occasional and dubious ragout or pasty and a gulp or two of sour wine (always fetched by surly innkeepers or their scowling slatterns), on side-roads deep in mire, with wind, rain, thunder-and-lightning, sleet, hail, snow, all turned on at the full.
With the windows rattling away and hailstones drumming at the paper in the fireplace, snug in bed save for one cold elbow, I have travelled thousands and thousands of mucky miles with these fellows, braving the foulest nights, together crying ‘Bah!’
Leaves & Pages 
Perfect! One of my main pleasures in life…. :))
Ah simple pleasures, it is good to jog the memory even if our lives are ho hum, or desperate.
How cosy! On really cold nights, I love hearing my husband get out of bed to stoke the woodstove. Love to hear the snap of the logs catching. And to lie in bed in the morning, waiting for my coffee (I know. I’m spoiled.), and hearing that same snap, the creak of the stove door. Small pleasures, but they go deep.
Sounds wonderful. And I can just see it: had he been born in another time, he’d have a blog called “Priestley Delights” and it would be one of my regular stops.