Comfort Reads (SF And Otherwise)

Anybody here have books that they return to on a regular or semi-regular basis for no particular reason other than they just make you feel better? An example: Couldn't sleep the other night. Normally my go-to activity when I am suffering from a bout of insomnia is reading, but I was getting frustrated with the lengthy introduction to the Penguin Classics volume that I was working on, and nothing else in the current reading pile looked promising. Almost without thinking about it, I grabbed A Princess of Mars off the bookshelf and started rereading it. After a couple of chapters, I felt relaxed and was able to get a good night's sleep (that's just the one that worked this time; over the years, Tolkien's Middle-earth books have had a similar function, as has Stephen King's work (The Stand, The Bachman Books, and Night Shift in particular)).

So what are your comfort reads? If you can't think of any, here's an io9 article to help jog your memory:

http://io9.com/whats-your-comfort-read-1336303457

My comfort sci-fi reads are The Songs of Distant Earth and Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke, Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, and (the only relatively recent book on this list) The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson.

Not SF, but I also go back to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn quite often.....

I have a few comfort listens. I have an old Caedmon recording of Leonard Nimoy reading two Heinlein short stories: The Green Hills of Earth and Gentlemen, Be Seated. I also have Nimoy reading Usher II by Bradbury. Those are always on my iPod.

In print, I agree with Burroughs - Tarzan and the Mars books. Also Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

Quite a few Lois McMaster Bujold books work for me. In particular, Memory, in which the redoubtable Miles Vorkosigan hits 30 and 30 hits back. Something about Miles rebulding his life always works for me.

My 2 favourites comfies are read about every 3 years
1. Dune by Frank Herbert
2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Not really in science fiction, but I have some in fantasy and other genres. Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw is one, the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, especially the first Crocodile on the Sandbank. Fantasy it's Sorcery and Cecilia or The Fire Rose.

It largely depends on what's at hand and how much stuff is piled up in front of the entrance to the library.

I used to read the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" in The Return of the King as a comfort read when I grew up, but I no longer do comfort readings.

>4 tardis:

I'm quite tempted by your post to return to Miles. Have only read the first, so far. Sounds like I need to delve a little deeper. :-)

Jack Vance is a comfort read for me, in particular Tales of the Dying Earth, The blue world, Araminta Station and The Face. Outside of science fiction I regularly reread some of my Discworld books, and Amélie Nothomb.

The only sci-fi books I can think of like that are Asimov's early Foundation stories - a nice orderly universe all well predicted where nothing can really go wrong, so no worries. Outside of sci-fi I think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a good choice, or To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Sure there's things that go wrong but ultimately they're headed in a good direction, and all those novels take place in simpler times. And there's always Charles Dickens - or if you really want to mellow out, Anthony Trollope.

Interesting how many of these 'comfort reads' are not light-hearted upbeat books.

I'm going to echo #5 and say Dune (Well, Dune through God Emperor of Dune mostly).

I first read them as a teen, and have since read them at least 6 times, always in what is essentially a single 'sitting'. I love that they grew with me and even though I can quote half the text by heart and the images are indelibly imprinted in my brain, each time it is a completely different experience with more to discover. I can't pick up any of those books without reading all of them. I can't even shift them on the shelf without finding myself cross-legged on the floor in front of the bookcase wondering where the past several hours went.

Good stuff.

>11 majkia:, I think how young they were first read must matter, and how many times they've read it. Like watching a movie where you already know every line and scene, where it's the familiarity that's the true comfort factor. In other words: possibly not the best list being developed here for others to use, lol

>11 majkia: >13 Cecrow:

I think that for some people there's also an element of "this puts my problems in perspective" - I may be having a crummy day at work, but the Dark Lord isn't trying to kill me! (This can work especially well if it all turns out okay in the end for the characters.)

Tops on my list for "comfort reading" is probably A Rendezvous in Averoigne.

>11 majkia: I'm going to chime in with John Wyndham as one of my main go tos - apocalypse shouldn't be comforting, but...

I like to reread CJ Cherryh's Chanur and Morgaine series, Dragonsinger, Shogun, The Jungle Book, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Irish Red, and The Beekeeper's Apprentice, to name a few.

The other night I wanted to look up and read a short section of Little Vic, and wound up reading the whole thing!

It's been a while since I've re-read The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz, and come to think of it, I think I'm due for some of the antics of Maleen, Goth, and the Leewit.

My favorite comfort read is Good Omens, possibly because it is both apocalyptic and hilarious. I'll also re-read selections from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a pick-me-up, because Douglas Adams is like an instant cure for bad moods.

I like GG Kay, CJ Cherryh Chanur and Merovingen series, plus many mentioned above, as well as Louis L'Amour, Mary Stewart, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and maybe too many more to mention. Shelves full of comfort!

When I've been feeling poorly, I've often found some early Pratchett - when he still did jokes and slapstick instead of Serious Comedy - has helped lift my spirits. And there's a Joe Haldeman short in one of the collections called "A !Tangled Web" which has some gloriously appealing aliens who avoid difficult questions by launching into an elaborate death-related metaphor that always ends "All die. O the embarrassment."

Me too. I've read The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes at least 4 or 5 times each, starting when I was a kid.

But I have to say Terry Pratchet has been the ultimate source for comfort for me for ages. When my marriage was dying a particularly horrible death I re-read my entire collection (even the ones I'd recently read) and it kept me sane. I wish I could let T.P. how much he's helped somehow!

I go for The Brentford Trilogy by Robert Rankin, as I like humour in my comfort reads.

A SF comfort read for me would any Iain M. Banks novels.

>20 nhlsecord: oh, yes, Louis L'Amour too! How could I neglect those...

>11 majkia: (et al.)

I agree with those who said it isn't really about subject matter. Like >16 imyril:, many of the titles I listed in the OP have post-apocalyptic or dystopian settings. I also agree with those who said that the age at which you first encountered the work(s) factor in - all the works I listed were ones that I first read before I was in my mid-twenties, when my life was not quite so fraught with responsibilities. I think the style or voice of certain writers makes them appealing to me - for example, there's something about the homey, quintessentially American style of Stephen King that I find intrinsically calming, even when he's talking about plagues and vampires and malevolent psychics.

>13 Cecrow:

possibly not the best list being developed here for others to use, lol

True, but it is really interesting, and gives you a great deal of insight as to how people develop as readers.

The Vorkosigan books and the Liaden Universe books always make me feel good.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Those books always make me laugh.

I do tend to reread phillip k dick, especially piper in the woods.
I also reread pawn of prophecy and the rest of the Belgariad by david eddings.

I'm sometimes drawn to reread Doomsday Book by Connie Willis around Xmas.
Due to the surfeit of the holiday spirit no doubt. :D

To Kill a Mockingbird and any Sackett book By Louis L'amour. The Belgariad. Eddies Bastard by William Kowalski

>31 tjm568: agreed, but the short story collections are very good, too. And Conagher, and Utah Blaine, and A Man Called Noon and...

I know. A few years ago my cousin asked me for a typical selection of Louis L'amour books. I have them all because my dad was a huge fan and passed that on to me. I tried to give her what I consider the best, but she wanted typical examples of his work. His best are are not the typical. I don't know what you say about Louis L'amour. His books are as simple as they come but convey such huge ideas. I started reading them when I was 10 years old and have read my favorites over and over. To this day, if I am at a loss as far as what to read next, I will often pick up a Louis L'Amour book to pass the time. And often I pick a random title. Yes I know how it will end, even if I don't remember the entire story, but they are strangely comforting.

http://www.tor.com/2015/07/14/sleeps-with-monsters-what-do-you-reread-for-comfor...

Fantastic epigraph from Ursula K. Le Guin.

For SF I return to The Old Man's War universe by John Scalzi. There's just something comforting about his approach to immortality and humankind's place in the universe.

My other go to is the Nero Wolfe novels of Rex Stout . It's not so much the mysteries, details of which I've forgotten but endings I usually remember at some point. Instead, it's the characters and most of all, the routine. He won't be down before 11, he won't shake your hand, and he likes eyes at a level so you have to sit down to talk to him. It's comforting to return to that world.

>36 tottman: Your mention of Rex Stout brought back memories of reading sixteen of the Wolfe books in a row, during a crisis period years ago.

Any Bujold, the Liaden Universe, James White's Sector General books, pretty much anything by James H. Schmitz but especially The Demon Breed, the first three books of Elizabeth Moon's Hunting Party series, certain Andre Nortons, Bellwether and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, Diane Duane's The Door Into... series, and Basilisk Station.

The Retrieval Artist Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is my comfort reading. I truly enjoy these novels and wished they could be a TV series on Netflix. CSI meets Star Trek is the best way to describe this series. Start with The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel and continue on from there. Paloma is my favorite book in this series so far. I could go on and on about these books.....:)

>36 tottman: I love the Nero Wolfe mysteries, too. I tend to use those (and Wodehouse) as literary palate-cleansers after I read something particularly dense or harrowing. My favorites are The Doorbell Rang and And Be a Villain.

I would probably do no better than pick up The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I've always promised myself I would re-read it one day.

Short stories do indeed make better comfort reads, being - well, short. I suppose I have two; if I'm feeling elegiac, Bob Shaw's slow glass story 'Light of Other Days' (part of the fix-up novel Other days, other eyes but widely anthologised and also available online) does it for me. If I feel in need of amusement, a Joe Haldeman short story, 'A !tangled web', has to be at the top of the list. It appeared in his collection Dealing in Futures.

I've been trying to come up with something ever since the thread started. There are few SF books I read more than once and even fewer that I've read more than that - and even that is sometimes externally dictated by a class I take or a group read. I've "comfort" read a few mysteries - Elizabeth Peters and Tony Hillerman principally.

For the SF genre, my "comfort" tends to re-watching several SF TV series. - Star Trek, Babylon 5, Starhunter, Space Rangers, Space 1999 and more. I think the comfort aspect comes into play because in a TV series, you get to know the characters episode after episode and the people become a temporary surrogate family and the environment, my make believe home.

Definitely the Kim Harrison Hollows series. I was first introduced to the book when I was 20 from my sister and ever since then I couldn't stop reading them. I've re-read the entire series maybe four or five times (I think there are thirteen novels, I'll have to look it up) and I'm thinking of re-reading them again since the series ended last year :(

Frank Herbert's Dune, because the setup is simple yet the execution nice and complex. And The Witches of Karres by James Schmitz, becaue it's funny and inventive.

I completely agree with #36, tottman. I re-read a Nero Wolfe book after about every 5 or 6 other books. Love spending time on West 35th Street!

In the SF genre these are books which I have read many many times. If I am waiting to go out,I often just reach onto the bookcase and pick out one of these,and perhaps will reread a fave bit for 10 minutes or so
Roger Zelazny - Nine Princes in Amber
David Weber - On Basilisk Station
Lois McMaster Bujold - A Civil Campaign,Memory
Elizabeth Moon - Once a Hero
Anne McCaffrey -Restoree.Pegasus in Flight,Dragonsinger
Edgar Rice Burroughs -Princess of Mars
C J Cherryh -Foreigner,Invader,Inheritor,Explorer,Rimrunners

How did I miss this thread both times? For me, the primary comfort read since age 11 has been LOTR. Must have read it scores of times, including the appendices. I don't have much other SF or fantasy that I reread a lot as comfort reading (for that, Austen/Dickens/Trollope and some children's books). I've read the Chanur series 3 or 4 times, and Dune. And, hard to call it comfort reading, but some H.P. Lovecraft stories a number of times.

This may sound strange but rereading the Harry Potter series works for me...

Mine would include A civil campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, The crystal singer by Anne McCaffrey, and Tanith Lee's Black unicorn trilogy. I suspect that The long way to a small angry planet will join the list too.

>49 rshart3:

And, hard to call it comfort reading, but some H.P. Lovecraft stories a number of times.

No, I get that, actually. There's something about best prose that's hypnotic, incantatory, and oddly soothing.

None of my comfort reads are scifi, and I don't have many of them. My number one fiction comfort read, rather ironically since I am not a romance reader, is Pride and Prejudice .

I have a few others I like to reread at times, but for fiction, that one takes the record. The only book I've read more times than P & P is the Bible.

I read every book Heinlein wrote up to Stranger in a Strange Land before I graduated from high school. I read them again in college and once more in graduate school. Thereafter I went back to them about once a decade, whenever the currently published material didn't appeal to me. Like Pride and Prejudice (agree with Karin 7), The Maltese Falcon and The Caine Mutiny, they always satisfy.

My Science Ficton comfort reads are Iain M. Banks' novels. Another would be Gormenghast.

A non- SF comfort read would be Catch 22.

Myth Adventures.

I guess that's the problem with most literature today (outside of children's literature). You have to depress to impress. Otherwise you're considered a sentimental hack.

Indeed. I'm currently wading through a back pile of fanzines from Australia's esteemed Bruce Gillespie (much of his recent 'SF Commentary' and 'Steam Engine Time' are available at eFanzines.com) (http://efanzines.com/SFC/) and many of the reviews of millennial SF appear to be about dystopian SF set in a corporate, globally-warmed future with AIs, 3D printing, social media and not much in the way of optimism or future vision.

The short stories of Cordwainer Smith. The Lady Who Sailed the Soul is a particular favorite.

Interesting that Gormenghast is one of your scifi Comfort Reads. I loved the first two back when I read them (a three box set as there were only 3 at that time) but was so disappointed with the third that I've never reread them. I have forgotten almost everything about them, too, just certain little things.

Ah yes, Cordwainer Smith - a true original. Unusual to find such tremendous compassion in true SF. I esp. love the ones featuring the underpeople, like The Ballad of Lost C'Mell. I don't remember the Lady Who Sailed the Soul, which means it's too long since I've reread him. And those littul kittens; yikes.

Georgette Heyer.

>59 Karin7: The third book is nothing to the first two as he was writing it while suffering from his illness. I understand it was finished by someone else after his death. The first two books are pure luxury for me.

I have the recently produced fourth book but have not plucked up the enthusiasm to start it as it is not by Peake himself.

>61 iansales: The detective novels or the bodice rippers?

>63 justifiedsinner: the Regency ones :-)

>63 justifiedsinner: I don't remember any attacks on bodices in Heyer. One reason I enjoyed them. Her mysteries were more hit and miss.

Oh, so let le bon ton rouler then?

(Feel free to groan if you want to).

That clarifies a great deal for me. I hadn't known that when I read them. More than likely I didn't read all that author info in the third one. I just hate to revisit it because many of the books I loved back then I don't like so much now, and I'd rather have the happy memory than disappointment.

>67 Karin7: I can relate to that.

For SF comfort reads, it would have to be Isaac Asimov. For non-SF, the original Sherlock Holmes canon, and C S Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.

I'm not much of a re-reader, for comfort or otherwise, but I tend to keep some unread books in TBR by a few authors that fit the role when needed I guess : Ursula K. Le Guin, C. J. Cherryh most notably.

Bujold is my duvet read. Anything in the Vorkosigan books but particularly the middle six or so.

>71 jozeb:

my duvet read

I love this phrase. I think of this form of reading as analogous to taking a warm bath - immerse yourself and say "Ahhh!" :)

Other then Dune and LOTR, which were mentioned by a few others, my favorite comfort book in science fiction is Way Station by Clifford Simak, can't tell you how many times I've read that book!

>73 kpfeifle: whoa. weird coincidence! I JUST read that yesterday. Dustydigger had recommended it to me about a year ago and I finally found a copy. So beautifully written, , and it's rare to find a futuristic story that hasn't become obsolete with time. Do you recommend anything else by this author?

>74 Darth-Heather: try The Goblin Reservation.

I really like Way Station and Goblin Reservation too. Simak is a favorite of mine.

>73 kpfeifle: Checking out Way station...