comfort books

[Jo Zebedee]

Not your favourite or most inspiring, but the ones you couldn't imagine being without. The ones you have in nooks and crannies where you can find them in minutes. The books you wrap around you when you feel poorly and just need an easy read. The ones you have an old edition of you would never change. The ones on your Kindle to pull up in an instant of need.

Mine (an eclectic choice and some of them I haven't read in years but still cherish):

Wuthering Heights
The Great Gatsby
Maps In a Mirror
Time Traveler's Wife
Memory, Komarr, Civil Campaign, Mirror Dance
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Morte D'arthur bought and inscribed by my brother
The Catch Trap
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (still to read it, love the first 50 pages...)
Huck Finn
To kill a mocking bird
The Snow Goose
The Last Battle
Winnie the Pooh
The Stand
Lord of the Flies


Poetry:

Yeats
MacNeice
Longley (esp. My collectible ones)
Fiacc

Plays:
Translations - Friel
The Playboy of the Western World - Synge
Waiting for Godot for when I need a laugh
The Billy Plays - graeme Reid
A Long Day's Journey into Night - O'Neill


I could go on....

 

[Alex The G and T]

I think of something lighter as "comfort" go-tos; when i just want a little time out, a chuckle and for gawds sake stop thinking too much. The always handy standbys, when I just don't even feel like scanning the shelves much:

Anything PG Wodehouse, despite being a hundred times read.
Likewise Terry Pratchett

Or collections of humor columnists like Dave Barry or Patrick F McManus.

When all else fails.... "Bored of the Rings" is usually good for a quick reread.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Bujold -- Komarr and A Civil Campaign

Adams -- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Anthony -- Apprentice Adept series

Willis -- Bellwether

Ripley -- Scarlett (sequel to Gone With the Wind)(Yes, I love this book)

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Leaves of Grass. I, Robot. Expecting Someone Taller. Crawling Chaos. Tales of Ordinary Madness. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Illustrated Man. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hitchhiker's Guide. Thurber Carnival. Just Enough Jeeves.

I just can't not have these around. I get twitchy without 'em.

 

[Hex]

There's a lot of overlap with my favourites, but:

Diana Wynne Jones (almost anything)
Austen (anything, though Sense and Sensibility least),
Jane Eyre
Chronicles of Narnia,
Lord of the Rings,
PG Wodehouse (Bertie Wooster books),
Dorothy L Sayers

My tastes in poetry are much less sophisticated than yours, springs. I like Wendy Cope, Auden, Iain Crichton Smith and a scattering of others.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I could have kept going with poetry because they're the ultimate dip-in when you need it... I also like Wendy Cope a lot (and Auden) but was brought up literally seeped in Yeats which has probably affected my tastes irrevocatively.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

LOTR & The Hobbit
Peter Dickinson, The Weathermonger
Helliconia trilogy
Dune (first novel)

 

[Mouse]

I don't have time to re-read or go over old books, but back in the day when I did have time, it'd be anything by Brian Jacques or Colin Dann.

 

[Nick B]

Lord of the Rings
Pratchett (anything really)
Michael Marshall (Smith) anything, though I'm not sure 'comfort' is the right word as the stories are never comforting in themselves, they do however demand re-reading of me on a regular basis.

 

[Toby Frost]

The Compleet Molesworth by Willians and Searle
The Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake
Raymond Chandler's crime stories, especially The Lady in the Lake
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Aliens Technical Manual by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and the design book for Alice - Madness Returns are strangely fascinating. I also find back issues of White Dwarf a comforting read, probably out of nostalgia, although the older the better.

Rather oddly, I'd have to nominate George Orwell's essays and Nick Cohen's What's Left? because they make me think that at least someone out there in politics has a working brain (had, in Orwell's case). Also, War and Society in Renaissance Europe by HR Hale, because it's just interesting. Bit weird, really.

 

[hopewrites]

Have you ever picked up a comfort book and found that the element that had always comforted you before seemed somehow different?

Masterharper of Pern has been a goto for years. I can always count on it to make me laugh, cry, love, loath, forgive, and leak several other emotions. It's almost become a litmus test of sorts that will tell me what emotion I've been repressing.
But on my last read through, and this extends to the other subsequent Pern books I followed it with. Roberton seemed different. I know that the words havent changed, so it has to be something about me that has. At first it was a bit distressing, like that moment when you realize your parents are human, not gods or super heroes. But the more I came to tearms with the change in my perception of the character, the better I felt. He'll probably still be a goto character for me for years to come.
But I can take comfort (when I remember to) in knowing that I have grown some.

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince sets are my other "Gah! Life is too... I need..." she really helps me pull things back into perspective.

Narnia is my hide-a-way though.

 

[Nick B]

Have you ever picked up a comfort book and found that the element that had always comforted you before seemed somehow different?

Masterharper of Pern has been a goto for years. I can always count on it to make me laugh, cry, love, loath, forgive, and leak several other emotions. It's almost become a litmus test of sorts that will tell me what emotion I've been repressing.
But on my last read through, and this extends to the other subsequent Pern books I followed it with. Roberton seemed different. I know that the words havent changed, so it has to be something about me that has. At first it was a bit distressing, like that moment when you realize your parents are human, not gods or super heroes. But the more I came to tearms with the change in my perception of the character, the better I felt. He'll probably still be a goto character for me for years to come.
But I can take comfort (when I remember to) in knowing that I have grown some.

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince sets are my other "Gah! Life is too... I need..." she really helps me pull things back into perspective.

Narnia is my hide-a-way though.

I am with you on this hopewrites, and I believe it is because we change and grow. Heroes I could relate to became distant as I grew older, more cynical I suppose. The people I relate to most now are those who don't want to be heroes, don't want to be the ones that fate hands the lead to but do it anyway because they are not able to do otherwise.

It is an old question but 'who is more deserving of heaven; the saint who can literally do no wrong, is incapable of even doing harm, or the man who struggles against a darker nature, who decides to do the right thing even though it costs him dearly every time?'

As a younger man I would prefer the Luke Skywalker goody two shoes type. As I get older I find myself preferring Elric or Jack Randall.

 

[hopewrites]

Yes! When I first started reading Narnia I was a Lucy through and through. Then Edmond made loads of sense to me. I absolutely adore that he not only grows from his mistakes, but follows through with encouraging others to learn and grow as well. He's exactly the big brother I always wanted, and eventually the older-sibling I try to be. Horse and his Boy lets Susan shine, but I've never been much of a Susan. *catches self babbling*

anyway. Glad to know I'm not alone in the "wait did they rewrite this character when I was away" camp.

 

[monsterchic]

The Castings Trilogy--Pamela Freeman
Game of Thrones--GRRM
Clash of Kings--GRRM
Storm of Swords--GRRM
Hush, Hush--Becca Fitzpatrick
Twisted--Laurie Halse Anderson

There are many others, but I'm not looking at my bookshelf right now My type's pretty much epic fantasy And Hope, I'm also in that camp.

 

[prizzley]

Have you ever picked up a comfort book and found that the element that had always comforted you before seemed somehow different?

I could always rely on Dorothy Dunnett, but the last time I picked up one of her books I found the rich descriptions way over the top. Weird.

 

[jastius]

everytime i re-read it is a new experience and a very old one.
my comfort reads are; bradbury TSWhite, mary stewart, anne mccaffery, david eddings, mercedes lackey, c h cheryth, patricia mcphillip, charles de lint, barbara hambley, roger zelaney, spider robinson, tolkien, asimov, paul anderson, gene wolfe, john ringo, elizabeth boyer, eric flint, and larry niven. and there are others...
i also do a lot of short story collection rereads. i have always enjoyed a good short story. i think theresa's work is in a few. she is eminently re-readable.

 

[SevenStars]

poetry:
Yates
Angelou
Robert Browning
Auden
Alice Walker
Thomas Hardy

Fiction:
Anything by Ruiz Zafon
Anything by Christopher Brookmyre
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
To Kill a Mockingbird
Snobs
Brideshead Revisited

Drama:
Translations (Friel)
Three Monologues (Johnston)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof


Other:
Introducing Literary Theory (Bradford)
Ain't I a Woman? (Bell Hooks)

 

[monsterchic]

Dragon Rider--Cornelia Funke

This is another one I remembered from looking at my bookshelf. Not even the greatest book I've ever read, but it brings back some fantastic memories. My third grade teacher (who is still my favorite teacher) read this book to us sometimes for up to an hour a day. It was really my first foray into fantasy, and rereading it brings back the memories of sitting in my desk listening to his soothing voice. Those are still some of my favorite memories and will more than likely continue that way.

Wow, now I miss third grade Senioritis is definitely kicking in around here

 

[tinkerdan]

I have two large bookshelves some boxes and a long shelf lining two walls near the ceiling full of books and when I'm in the mood I might peruse that and then settle on one of the hundred favorites I have. Sometimes I fixate on one author for a time. I can't think of ever hunting for a particular read for anything more than a referrence.

It seems pretty random most times.

Poe
Doyle
Verne
Wells
Dumas
Asmov
Clark
used to be my mainstay through HS and college long long ago.