A few months ago, I asked my 5-year-old niece a simple question about “Harry Potter,” and she went on to eagerly tell me about the early parts of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

It was a reminder how much I enjoy playing the “What are you reading game?” — even and especially with a 5-year-old. And Minnesota and Austin residents got a good chance at playing this game recently.

I thought of my niece’s excitement recently when Minnesota Public Radio released a list of the most-read books at several Minnesota libraries in 2016, and then the Herald sought out the same information from the Austin Public Library.

It was fascinating to look at the books being read by the millions of readers across the state and the thousands here in Austin. Many of those books are on my current reading list or were in the past. For example, I’ve read “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins (My quick review: It wasn’t bad, but it was depressing; I’d recommend reading “Gone Girl” instead) and “The Life We Bury” by Allen Eskens (My quick review: It’s a good read for Minnesotans, especially those with ties to Austin, and it’s an all-around good thriller). I’m also currently reading “Goodnight, Mr. Wodehouse” by Faith Sullivan.

Winter, after all, is a great season for reading, especially for tackling the difficult reads. Winter has a way of forcing us to slow down. And if you’re not involved in winter outdoor activities, you find yourself stuck inside … a lot.

So my niece’s endeavors into Harry Potter — with the help of her mother, aka my older sister — got me thinking. My niece and her mother were reading the first Harry Potter book together, and I’d been toying with finally picking up the series and her excitement led me to finally wanting to read the series.

I was stricken with how excited she was to share the story and how quickly it’d sparked her imagination.

Soon after, I decided I should finally read the Harry Potter series, but only after I took care of some hefty unfinished business of my own. That’s when I opted to set a winter 2017 goal of finally finishing J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Cormac McCarthy’s “Border Trilogy.”

I’m a bit shamed to announce I’m about a third of the way there and find myself still catching up to the furthest I’ve been in these trilogies. Yes, I fell off from both trilogies a few years ago. I made it about halfway through “The Lord of the Rings,” breezing through “The Fellowship of the Ring” and half of “The Two Towers” before falling into a busy rut and never getting back to it.

Similarly, I completed McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses,” which stands well on its own as a fantastic book, before coming up lame again partway through the trilogy’s second offering, “The Crossing.”

Tolkien’s Middle Earth novels, like “The Hobbit,” are classics, but they’re not necessarily easy reading, as they include much background about Middle Earth’s fictional history. And McCarthy, who won a Pulitzer for “The Road” and crafted the masterpiece “Blood Meridian,” is one of my favorite authors, but his novels require some dedication (warning: they’re usually pretty violent and contain rather long sentences in his unique prose).

Plus, these books are just fairly long, and I’m sparse on free time. However, I vowed to finish the trilogies before considering the seven-book “Harry Potter” series.

But regardless what your reading list brings, winter is a great time to delve into a good, long book. Check today’s Spotlight feature for some reading suggestions, or check out the January-February 2017 edition of Austin Living, which includes recommendations from Austin Public Library staff.

A few reads that I’m interested in that made the list of most-read books around Minnesota:

•”Thirty Rooms to Hide In: Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic” by Luke Sullivan

•”Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren

•”Ordinary Grace” by William Kent Krueger

•”Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee

•”The Guise of Another” by Allen Eskens

•The “Harry Potter” series (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany made these lists)

•”The” Girls” by Emma Cline