Comfort reading

I wish I had time to re-read every book I have loved. Unfortunately, that pleasure is reserved for very special books but I do find that certain books and authors fall into the category of 'comfort reading'. I'm talking about the times when you feel ill or stressed or overworked and you need something old, loved and familiar to get you through - these are mine:

Anything by Stephen King, but especially the early goodies like The Dead Zone, The Stand and Firestarter

Those real (often slightly trashy) classics I read in my teens like Forever Amber, Gone With the Wind and Valley of the Dolls

Then certain much-loved ones that I practicaly know by heart - The Steinbeck 'funnies' - (Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat) - Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' books, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Sophie's World, The Crimson Petal and the White, The Secret History and any short stories by Saki.

What are yours?

E to try and fix touchstones

My comfort reads tend to be books I read when I was younger - Little Women or the Narnia books, for example - things I've read countless times.

Some books I've read so often that I skip straight to my favorite parts, like the storm-in-the-garden scene from Jane Eyre, or the first proposal from Pride and Prejudice.

Humor works too, like the Hitchhiker's books, anything by Jasper Fforde.
Anything with a happy ending that doesn't require me to think.

Let's see...I'd have to say my comfort reading would be:

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion
Samuel Beckett, especially the novels, but also Waiting for Godot
David Lodge, especially The British Museum is Falling Down
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Vladimir Nabokov, especially Pale Fire.
John le Carre's Smiley novels
Ellis Peters' Cadfael novels
Anthony Trollope, especially The Warden and other Barchester novels
T.S Eliot's Four Quartets

These I can (and have) re-read endlessly. I'm sure there are a few others, though; these are just the ones that sprang to mind immediately.

I have read all of Louis L'Amour books and on a number of occasions I have gone back to reread them. Doesn't matter which one, any one will do. I work with the public and on some days I really would like to hang them upside down by their toenails. Louis L'Amour heros always know how to deal with the situation and never takes any gaff from the evildoers. I'm in love with his heros.

I like dipping into something really light or amusing when I need cheering up, especially if I'm ill and just can't focus on anything else. Bill Bryson's Notes from a Big Country always works, and Guy Browning's little humorous collection Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade. In fact, when I woke up with a cracking headache this morning and needed something to distract me while the painkillers started working, that's what I reached for!

Anything by L.M. Montgomery (I can never get her touchstone to work!) qualifies as comfort reading for me. I received all of her published journals for Christmas and as a result have spent most of my much-needed winter break in her company. I think it's going to take some effort not to bring everything of hers that I own back with me to campus. By the time this past semester ended I couldn't de-stress enough to sleep without cracking open one of the Anne books, and Anne Shirley isn't even a particularly favorite heroine of mine.

W.B. Yeats' poetry also makes me feel better if I'm having a rough time. I've never been able to figure that one out, considering the miserable, love-lorn tone of 90% of his work. I can't tell if it's a "it could always be worse" factor or just one Irish soul commiserating with another, but for some bizarre reason he's always an effective pick-me-up.

Any of the Harry Potter books. I can just escape into that world and forget about everything else. I just love the characters, the stories, everything. It's the perfect comfort read for me.

Harry Potter books, particularly the earliest ones
Nancy Drew books, any I can find
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

The Once and Future King and Mists of Avalon are both high
on my list of comfort reads.

If I want a comfort read I reach for something by L.M. Montgomery or Alexander McCall Smith. Bridget Jones is also another favourite.

Any of Sarah Caudwell's detective stories - comforting but just enough of an edge not to be cosy.

The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul or Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, whichever I can find more quickly.

Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson.

Or any of the Dalziel and Pascoe books.

Hmm - they all seem to be detective stories, of one sort or another...

My comfort reads are:

Harry Potter books
The Lord of the Rings
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the rest of the Narnia books
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, and sequels
Fruits Basket
Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

And I've only read them once each, but can see them becoming regular rereads:
84, Charing Cross Road
Ex Libris
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

It's interesting looking at the list, realizing that even my rereads depend on my mood.

My comfort reading is probably ; any of my Pierce books cos i can always devour several of them in a short space of time. Erm The Chronicles of Narnia should the fancy take me. And i keep re-reading bits of the Twilight saga books at the moment.
Now i've a urge to re-read loads of books i haven't picked up in a while :(

Believe it or not, for me it's Joseph Conrad. I can pick up Typhoon, Heart of Darkness or The Secret Agent, open them up to any spot in the narrative (although from the beginning is best) and be instantly absorbed. I am always awed, plus vastly entertained, by Conrad's observations about life and his use of language (English was Conrad's third language!).

From Typhoon:

. . . Yet the uninteresting lives of men so entirely given to the actuality of the bare existence have their mysterious side. It was impossible in Captain MacWhirr's case, for instance, to understand what under heaven could have induced that perfectly satisfactory son of a petty grocer in Belfast to run away to sea. And yet he had done that very thing at the age of fifteen. It was enough, when you thought it over, to give you the idea of an immense, potent, and invisible hand thrust into the ant heap of the earth, laying hold of shoulders, knocking heads together, and setting the unconscious faces of the multitude towards inconceivable goals and in undreamt-of directions.

His father never rally forgave him for this undutiful stupidity. "We could have got on without him," he used to say later on, "but there's the business. And he an only son, too!" His mother wept very much after his disappearance. As it had never occurred to him to leave word behid, he was mourned over for dead till, after eight months, his first letter arrived from Talcahuano. It was short, and contained the statement: We had very fine weather on our passage out." But evidently, in the writer's mind, the only important intelligance was to the effect that his captain had, on the very day of writing, entered him regularly on the ship's articles as Ordinary Seaman. "Because I can do the work," he explained. The mother again wept copiously, while the remark, "Tom's an ass," expressed the emotions of the father.

Oh yes, I just remembered one - The Book Addict's Treasury by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy (I think), which is wonderful. I also seem to keep reaching for The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Picture of Dorian Gray, for some reason, so maybe they're mysteriously comforting too?

Anything by Dick Francis or Parnell Hall's Puzzle Lady series.

And now wandering_star has mentioned all those detective books, I'm reminded that Agatha Christie often does the trick too.

Gone With The Wind would be the first one that I would go to for comfort, but when I give it some thought a lot of books my childhood spring to mind, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Last of the Mohicans to list just a few. These days I get a lot of comfort out of reading aloud to my grandchildren. I just finished The Coral Island with my grandson not long ago, and we are planning on reading Treasure Island together, also I'm sure they would both enjoy The Wizard of Oz will probaby try that too.

So I guess looking at my list, I get comfort from the books I first discovered when I was young.

Frequently Mrs. Miniver is a successful comfort read; no relation to the realities of my life (or perhaps only a little with regard to children), but such a lovely picture of domesticity.

The Straight and Narrow Path by Honor Tracy and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons are two books I consider comfort reads -- their humor (and remove from my everyday life) will always help calm any anxiety or stress. Mysteries are always good too.

For me, comfort reading is either a good old fashion English mystery by either Agatha Christie, Ruth Rendall or Anne Perry or else frivolous escapism which would include books by Sophie Kinsella and P.G. Wodehouse.

Tops for me would probably be any of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances--I always find them funny and of course enjoy the way the love stories work out.

Also favorite mysteries--Agatha Christie or Robert Parker's Spenser books or Lindsey Davis's Falco series or Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series. And then there's the fantasy--Anne McCaffrey's Pern stories or Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series.

And for very special cases, Jane Austen, especially Persuasion.

Put me down for Gone With the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, Outlander and a Julie Garwood Scottish highlander romance novel or a regency romance by Julia Quinn.

#18 absolutely, Little Women, but I gave my copy to my daughter. Actually I gave her the whole series...that and Anne of etc.

Agree! Little Women. I also like Colin Dexter mysteries Inspector Morse and anything by Hamlin Garland.

Comfort Reading for me is all those books i loved to read when i was growing up and still love to read to this day, The Golden Compass Books, Narnia, and The Harry Potter Books are all books i can read over and over again.

Oh, I'd say East of Eden, The Little Prince, and To Kill A Mockingbird, perhaps Harry Potter as well.

For me it's Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. I know the stories well, I know there's no nasty surprises lurking (like what mckait has mentioned in other threads), and if my mind drifts for a while, when I drift back, I know what's going on.

I think The Princess Bride, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Cross stitch series will be added to the list as well.

I do like a bit of chick lit sometimes - The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella was really good, and The Nanny by Melissa Nathan. One I read recently was The Thing about Jane Spring which is a Doris Day-esque transformation novel, harsh woman to gorgeous beauty, that kind of thing. I'm always wary with girlie novels but these ones hit the spot!

Books with a happy ending are always "comfort reading" Authors like Maeve Binchy, Rosalind Pilcher, Fannie Flagg usually wrap everything up neatly at the end.
Someone said they enjoyed Jan Karon's "Mitford" books as a comfort read. I tried one & it was just OK, has anyone here found them comforting?

Little Women
To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles

#1 Booksloth

Anyone who could rate Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell as one of their comfort reads is a hero. It's one of my favourites as well.

Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is also quite a delightful comfort read.

ETA - I meant to add this message to my previous post but my brain disengaged. Please forgive.

I actually have found Jan Karon's books to be a comfort read. It is the kind of book you only wish there are towns like she describes in her books - those days are gone!!

I'm not much of a rereader these days, so I don't reach for something familiar. Instead, when I'm in need of some serious comfort, I go for 19th century classics. Anna Karenina, Jane Austen, that sort of stuff.

Thanks for that, Phlox72 - and yes, to anything by Bill Bryson as well. And whoever it was who said To Kill a Mockingbird. I suppose anything I've already read more than 3 times starts to fit the bill.

For comfort reading I turn to Flannery O'Connor. Also, Patricia Cornwell would be comforting - light but intense . . . I don't really remember any of the specific plots of her books but remember always enjoying them.

Most of my comfort rereading is... fanfiction. Short and on my computer, heh. But when I need a comfortable book to settle back on, I mostly turn to my books about movies, oddly enough -- I can dive into I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie by Roger Ebert, The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens by Sean Griffin, Screened Out by Richard Barrios, or even Leonard Maltin anytime.

Of course, I also will read The Chronicles of Narnia, any Roald Dahl, the Young Wizards books, A Wrinkle in Time and sequels, Hitchhiker's Guide, Maniac Magee... Favorites from when I was younger.

I was a much bigger rereader as a kid -- I must have read The Forgotten Door, The Pike River Phantom, The Pinballs, the first Boxcar Kids book, Chicken Soup for the Teen Soul, and, weirdly, Scam School by Chuck Whitlock dozens of times each when I was twelve or thirteen.

I honestly can't think of any books I would be inclined to reread, just for the purpose of giving one comfort. I guess, once again I fall into the familiar role of old curmudgeon.

I read your great choices, and feel the enthusiasm that you lucky readers have, and all the wonderful titles that are listed, and I have read many of them, but I doubt I would consider any of them comfort books. Nor could I see myself carrying any one of them around the room between my teeth as I used to carry my blanky!

And then I turned sixteen...

Seriously tho, for me comfort is curling up besides a nice warm fire, a hot cup of chocolate, and a good book on my lap. Or, pausing from my book, to glance across the room at my dear wife and son, and realize how extraordinarily lucky I am. Or to finally reach the last page of an extremely satisfying novel, only to take a gander at my to-be-read books steadily piling up to the roof. Or to fall asleep halfway through a chapter, perchance to dream of heroes, and knights on white horses rescuing dames in distress.

Or, when things are not going so smoothly, to take up my old testament and peruse a few pages, and savor those ancient, but oh so wise words from which we can all take some comfort.

On a lighter note, there is always H P Lovecarft or Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. Now we're talking comfort...

Ooooh, that paragraph about the fire and the piles of books, what a gorgeous image...

Yes, that belongs on the favorite reading spot thread.

Do we have a favorite reading spot thread?

#42: Ask and ye shall receive! :)
http://www.librarything.com/topic/33689

I'll go with P.G. Wodehouse, especially his Jeeves and Wooster stories. I might re-read one of Patrick O'Brian's brilliant sea stories (for some reason, if I need comfort reading, The Wine-dark Sea is my favorite).
I will also go for favorite mysteries, such as The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series,
Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco novels, or Steven Havill's Posadas County mysteries

And how on earth did I forget Daphne du Maurier? Especially Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel and The House on the Strand! Each one now on replacement copies 'cos the originals got so battered.

I am the only person I know in the 3D world who actually finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell ... I did like it, but the overuse of certain words like "thistle down" and "sanguine" had me gritting my teeth. If that one was edited even slightly more I think it would have been amazing. But I get it ...

I find it comforting that any book on a long afternoon with nothing else to do allows me to sit there and just read uninterrupted (what a pleasure). It's probably and odd choice, but I just loved Handling Sin by Michael Malone ... very funny, road trip madness w/very quirky people where love wins out in the end. I read it on a trip to/from IL/San Francisco and the flight flew by. I've read many other things by Malone, but nothing comes close to this one.

>45 Booksloth:

Oh, it's been years since I read The House on the Strand but I still get a shiver down my back thinking of it. Thanks for reminding me of it, now I have to go find it.

#47 Amazing, isn't it? I might have to go dig it out again too now.

>48 Booksloth: I just asked for it on BookMooch. Oddly, it didn't show up when I searched by title but did when I searched by author. But I'm happy to have found it on there, though my Mount TBR is threatening to rival Everest for height . . .

Lots of shared comfort favorites here. Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, other Jane Austens, Jeeves and Wooster stories, Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny, and Cetaganda by Lois MCMaster Bujold.

My confort books are the ones that i could stay up all night if i wanted to reading.

Incuding Harry Potter, Twilight books, etc.

If the book is a slow moveing book or is boring then i would not want to read it agen. Mabay it was good the first time. But, some books after a while are not good.

I just noticed on another thread that someone brought home Villiage School by Miss Read and that reminded me that I often turn to Miss Read for some comfort reading. She was a retired British school teacher and wrote wonderful books about British villages Thrush Green, country life and rural schools Fairhaven.
Great books to curl up with! :)

I'm not sure if this rates as a comfort book, but I've been working my way through the collected short stores of Saki on nights I have trouble sleeping. A little sip of cognac and two or three stories seems to do the trick,

#53 I reckon that definitely counts. Another good one that I'm more than happy to turn to.

Every time I get in a reading rut where I can't seem to decide on what to read I turn to Amelie Nothomb to give me a short enchanting read. I own all her books but still have 3 that I haven't read. I save them for the ruts. :)