What's Your Comfort Reading?

[Scissorjack]

Some evenings you just can't face Types Of Ethical Theory, A Brief Introduction To Logical Positivism or the latest Booker winner by a controversial Nigerian playwright that you feel you ought to be reading, and reach instead for a well-worn comfort book. It's like an old friend; you've read it half a dozen times before, and know just what to expect. Picking it off the shelf and cracking the covers is like slipping into a warm bath: no effort, no pretense, just slide into it and relax. So what do you choose?

I go for one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser books when I want trusty familiarity: sure, the series lost its edge a long time ago - Hawk has become the black Santa Claus instead of a wry leg-breaker with an odd sense of honour, and I'm sick of the goddamn dog, and Susan is too perfect and cutesy-poo for words - but for well-crafted tough-guy prose and a straight-shootin' hard-hittin' wise-crackin' PI setting the world to rights a punch and a quip at a time, Spenser can't be beat. Comfort reading at its best.

[ScareyFaerie]

Mine is definitely Sharon Penman's novel, "Here be Dragons". OK, so it's a large tome but I've read it many times and it's always been a great book to delve into. In fact, all of her novels are worth the effort.

[Surok]

The Secret History (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-History-Donna-Tartt/dp/0140167773/ref=pd_bowtega_1/203-5375906-8271152?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179746490&sr=1-1) by Donna Tartt

Collected Poems (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Poems-1951-92-Charles-Causley/dp/0333575172/ref=pd_bowtega_3/203-5375906-8271152?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179746581&sr=1-3) by Charles Causley, now sadly out of print.

Memoirs of a Sword Swallower (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Sword-Swallower-Daniel-Mannix/dp/0965046958/ref=sr_1_1/203-5375906-8271152?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179746660&sr=1-1) by Dan Mannix.

Moon Palace (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moon-Palace-Paul-Auster/dp/0571142206/ref=sr_1_4/203-5375906-8271152?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179746727&sr=1-4) by Paul Auster.

Comfort reading is great.

[madmonk28]

I have a really bad habit of re-reading the same books over and over again. For just good old cheezy comfort:

Old John LeCarre;
Jack Vance
Original Earthsea novels;
Flashman novels
Raymond Chanlder

[Ukulele Ike]

Three Men in a Boat (http://www.amazon.com/Three-Men-Boat-Bummel/dp/0140437509/ref=sr_1_2/103-1518416-0570237?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179747066&sr=1-2) by Jerome K. Jerome.

The Man Who was Thursday (http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Was-Thursday-Nightmare/dp/0375757910/ref=sr_1_1/103-1518416-0570237?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179747200&sr=1-1) by G.K. Chesterton. (His Father Brown detective stories are excellent comfort reading, too.)

Any of John Thorne's brilliant food writing (http://www.amazon.com/Serious-Pig-American-Search-Roots/dp/0865475970/ref=sr_1_4/103-1518416-0570237?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179747370&sr=1-4).

[Lilacs]

My comfort books will always be Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

[OtakuLoki]

A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Houseman

Lois McMaster Bujold's books.

[China Guy]

james lee bourke and his cajun stuff
christopher moore
carl hiassen

[pprgrl]

I'm another compulsive re-reader. I usually have at least one Discworld book on the side as my comfort read. A lot of sci-fi and fantasy that I read as a kid also falls under that heading: Bradbury, Heinlein, Niven & Pournelle, etc. "The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton" and Adrienne Rich's "The Fact of a Doorframe" are my comfort poetry reads.

[JohnT]

Cities in Civilization (http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Civilization-Peter-Hall/dp/0394587324), by Sir Peter Hall.

History of the World (http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Civilization-Peter-Hall/dp/0394587324), by JM Roberts.

[Dung Beetle]

Gone With the Wind.

[koeeoaddi]

Whenever I move I reread Pride and Prejudice. It takes the edge off the strangeness of being in a new place.

Read that sucker about 17 times now.

[silenus]

Heinlein or Pratchett, doesn't really matter which book or which author.

[Clockwork And Candy]

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende

Emma by Jane Austen

[Dung Beetle]

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte


Oh, yes, definitely!

[gonzomax]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...Persig

[MarcusF]

Like other I often keep an old Heinlein on standbye. Rereading murder mysteries by Dorothy L Sayers or Ngaio Marsh is always soothing.

[myrnajean]

A Moment in Peking, by Lin Yutang.
I must have read it at least 10 times already.

[FriarTed]

The Bible, Narnia, Atlas Shrugged, Dracula, Almanacs

[Ellen Cherry]

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Stand, Stephen King
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
Addie Pray, Joe David Brown (the book Paper Moon was based on)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The World According to Garp, John Irving

[kung fu lola]

The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
The Anne Shirley Books (yes all 8 of them), Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood
The Pursuit Of Love, Nancy Mitford

[Matt Holck]

3 lines

unless a post is good

[Guinastasia]

Star Wars novels. Especially the X-Wing saga.

[Gordon Urquhart]

Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days. Reading that book is like eating hot biscuits -- it's good for whatever ails you.

[Ogre]

I hate the SOB, and would never buy anything new he puts out, because god knows he's a miserable hack of a writer, but The Belgariad, by David Eddings, is wonderful comfort reading.

[Flutterby]

Mary Stewart - The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment
Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern (the first 3 and a couple others but none of the new crap by her son) or the Killashandra or Talents series
Sharon Shinn - any of her Samaria series
David Eddings - The Redemption of Althalus or The Belgariad
Mercedes Lackey/Andre Norton - Elvenbane
Mark Twain - A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Fairy tales, of any stripe. I've got a few different collections and legends either traditional (blood and guts), Disneyfied, politically correct or adult. Always a nice wuick read.

All these have a place on my bookshelf, and when I don't feel like reading anything new on my library pile I generally grab one of these.

[Matt Holck]

Mary Stewart - The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment
Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern (the first 3 and a couple others but none of the new crap by her son)

I read the Dragon singers

[Lissla Lissar]

I re-read compulsively. My current favourites for comfort are:

Lynn Flewelling's Hidden Warrior trilogy
Most of the Miss Read books about Fairacre (nothing ever happens! They eat sponge cake! It's great!)
The second half of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series
All the pretty crummy Recluce books
Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

[Dung Beetle]

Thought of another:

Good Morning, Miss Dove, by Frances Gray Patton.

[DrCube]

Catcher in the Rye. I've read it about ten times.

Anything by Salinger, really. It sounds horrible, but I can't wait for him to die, so we can finally read all the stuff he's been writing for the last fifty years or so. Unless it ends up being about a million pages of super-philosophical Buddhist nonsense. Then I'd be really disappointed.

I also read Heinlein for "comfort". Isaac Asimov, too.

[Airblairxxx]

Any of the Travis Mcgee novels by John D. McDonald.

[shamrock227]

I have three. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Hobbit, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I have others that I love and have read many times. But these three are my go to books when I just want to snuggle down and relax.

[Flutterby]

I read the Dragon singers

Dragon Singers are among the few others. :) As is The Masterharper of Pern.

[LavenderBlue]

Little Woman the classic adolescent novel.

[cochrane]

I have to echo any one of the Hitchhiker's novels. I have a hard cover book with all five novels, plus a short story called "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe."

Any good Star Trek novel.

Any Spenser novel.

Anything by Elmore Leonard.

Anything by Evan Hunter or his alter-ego Ed McBain, particularly the 87th Precinct novels written under McBain.

[pinkfreud]

I've lost count of how many times I have reread William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Ah, if only I could get hold of the original S. Morgenstern version. ;)

[SkeptiJess]

Children's books. Top choices: the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, anything by Beverly Cleary.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

If I'm feeling moody I will sometimes pick up an old favorite book and skim through it, looking for my favorite scenes. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is good for this (I can look for all the Lord John Grey bits, for instance.)

Like others here, I've read Gone With the Wind several times. Also James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small books, the original Pern trilogy, Dune, and Heinlein's Friday.

Lissla Lissar, I only discovered Sunshine last year, and I've read it three times already.

[CalMeacham]

Dave Barry books

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Random Heinlein writings

Dave Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food and Interior Desecration

Weller's Science Made Stupid and CVLTVRE Made Stupid

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Wodehouse -- especially the Jeeves stories.

I also like Tim Dorsey's novels a lot. Anarchy and violence with a brain.

[Shodan]

I lie back in bed, open Beat to Quarters, by C.S. Forrester, and start off -
It was not long after dawn, when the captain of HM frigate Lydia came up on deck. And I am hooked again.

Works every time.

Regards,
Shodan

[shamrock227]

I've lost count of how many times I have reread William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Ah, if only I could get hold of the original S. Morgenstern version. ;)I know. It's a real bitch to track down. I have been trying for years.



Yes. I know. :)

[KneadToKnow]

Patrick F. McManus's early books (up to The Night The Bear Ate Goombaw)
A book about the 1985 Salt Lake City bombings called A Gathering of Saints
Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg
Penthouse Forum






Just kidding about the last one.

It's actually Variations.

[CalMeacham]

I lie back in bed, open Beat to Quarters, by C.S. Forrester, and start off -

Quote:
It was not long after dawn, when the captain of HM frigate Lydia came up on deck.

And I am hooked again.

Works every time.

Regards,
Shodan

Ack! I forgot Forester. One of my favorites, except I prefer his later ones.

[Scissorjack]

I should also add Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, Lawrence Block's Burglar books, and George MacDonald Fraser's The Pyrates.

[Flutterby]

Oh I see Lissla mentioned Sunshine by Robin McKinley. She's another of my comfort authors, though I'm more inclined to reread The Blue Sword than Sunshine (but I loved Sunshine!). A quick look shows she's finally written another book! Coming out this September. Yay!

This of course reminds me of another favourite, the Lioness and the Immortals quartets by Tamora Pierce.

You can really see a theme in my comfort books can't you? :p

[Infovore]

Wow...I was just thinking of asking this same question (though more in the sense of "what books do you fall back on when you're sick and you just want to read something comforting").

Mine are:
Jacqueline Lichtenberg's Sime~Gen series (House of Zeor, Unto Zeor Forever, etc.)
Old Peanuts books (especially the "Peanuts Parade" series of big reprint books)
Atlas Shrugged
The Harry Potter series
Old kids' series I liked when I was young, like Trixie Belden and The Three Investigators.

[Satchmo]

I read the Space Battle from the end of Niven and Pournelle's Footfall.

Wham!
Wham!

[Martha Medea]

I love re-reading
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series and Maybe the Moon
Selected chick lit
Barbara Trapido's Brother of the More Famous Jack and The Travelling Hornplayer

[Cunctator]

An Agatha Christie

[misling]

Too many to list, really, since I re-read something nearly every night before going to sleep, when I'm too tired to read something new.
Here're some:
Arthur Ransome, anything
Andre Norton, anything
Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, anything
Castle Perilous series by John DeChancie (this is real brain popcorn)
L.M.Montgomery, anything, though my favorite is The Blue Castle
Wodehouse, except NOT Jeeves & Wooster.
Robin McKinley, esp. the Blue Sword and the Hero and the Crown
Patricia McKillip

[myrnajean]

Ah, and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

[AuntiePam]

Early Stephen King, but I don't always finish them. I don't re-read much. Whatever I'm reading now is a comfort read.

[gigi]

I don't reread many, but Jane Austen and Flannery O'Connor would be old pals.

The Phantom Tollbooth

And when I want a good cry, Love You Forever.

[Freezair SilverEye]

I re-read EVERYTHING. My criteria for keeping a book, when I go into one of my "purging sessions," is: "Will I re-read this?" But I have several books that are definitely my "comfort reads." Lots of silly but wonderful fantasy. If I had to pick the top four of them, it'd probably be...

Abarat, by Clive Barker. Quite possibly my favorite book ever. The oil paintings are endearing, but I really latch on to this one because I adore the characters and find them to be like friends who can comfort me by telling me about their lives.

The Hounds of the Morrigan, by Pat O'Shea. Definitely the kind of book that's meant to comfort you. It is very much like an old fairy tale or folktale, overflowing with old Irish mythology and plenty of adventurous happenings. It's a good thick book and will last a very long time, but it's very light and enjoyable and never bogs me down.

Deep Secret, by Diana Wynne Jones. For some odd reason Mrs. Jones seems to not like to acknowledge this book's existance, as it can't be found on any of her "Also by this author" lists and the sequel she wrote to it was refered to on its jacket as a standalone! But in reality it's one of my favorite fantasy/sci-fies, especially since it takes place at... a convention for fantasy and sci-fi buffs. Also, the ugly gal gets the man. I love funny little things like that.

Song in the Silence, by Kathleen Kerner. Not explicity a young adult fantasy, although it did win an ALA Young Adult books prize and Starscape Books published a version of it. But it's a very pure-fantasy-like book with a (once more) very fairy-tale like backbone: An ordinary human woman falls in love with the King of the Dragons.