# What's your comfort entertainment literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737 "2010-09-14T16:42:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/1 "2010-09-14T16:42:54Z")
Seems simple enough. Tell us about a book, poem or short story you turn to to bring yourself out of a funk, and tell us why it works for you. Please be specific. That is, don’t say _anything by C.S. Lewis_; rather, say _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it’s light and merry and has Lucy & Edmund, the best of the Pevensies, while leaving Susan at home to knit where she belongs._ ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/2 "2010-09-14T16:47:22Z")
The first two books of James Herriott’s series (_All Creatures Great and Small_, and _All Things Bright and Beautiful_) make me laugh. I love his depictions of rural England in the 1930s. I love the conflict between Siegfried and Tristan Farnon. I wish I could have met Tristan and taken part in some of his escapades. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/3 "2010-09-14T16:48:25Z")
_The Phantom Tollbooth_ by Norton Juster. One of my favorite books since I was quite young, and still a fantastic, clever, feel-good novel. Besides the fact that I’ve read it numerous times to the point where I don’t really have to pay full attention to know what is going on, it has a very simple plotline and writing style, since it’s written primarily for young audiences. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/4 "2010-09-14T16:53:49Z")
–Dave Barry’s books. Just about all of 'em. Funny reads, even after multiple readings –Frederick Forsyth novels. Especially _Day of the Jackal_. Very well done descriptions and vignettes of people and their motives, all built into a thriller. – **Bored on the Rings** Still hilarious after all these years. –Larry Gonick’s **Cartoon History of the Universe/Modern World** – funny _and_ informative ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/5 "2010-09-14T16:58:50Z")
Terry Pratchett. More specifically the City Watch sub-series. Vimes, Vetinari and Carrot restore my faith in the power of Order over Chaos, and Nobby is just fun. I like my comfort inna bun. With onions. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/6 "2010-09-14T16:58:52Z")
My Mom gave me a copy of [The Cliff Walk](http://www.amazon.com/Cliff-Walk-Memoir-Lost-Found/dp/0316803480) at a time when I had lost my job and girlfriend and was in a bad funk. I’ve been back to it a few times since and it still helps to make me recognize which are the important things. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/7 "2010-09-14T18:03:42Z")
[Good Morning, Miss Dove by Francis Gray Patton.](http://www.amazon.com/Good-Morning-Miss-Frances-Patton/dp/0884118797) Miss Dove is a small-town geography teacher who is big on routine, rules, cleanliness, punctuality, manners, etc. In this way she keeps her world predictable and controllable. (Or does she?) My grandpa gave me this book when I was a kid and I read it over and over. Jane Eyre gives me the same sort of feeling…that if I just do the right thing, everything will be okay in the end. I would agree with **BobArrgh** ’s choice too. I always loved those James Herriott books. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/8 "2010-09-14T18:41:26Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Terry Pratchett. More specifically the City Watch sub-series. Vimes, Vetinari and Carrot restore my faith in the power of Order over Chaos, and Nobby is just fun. Me too! I’ll also read Agatha’s murder mysteries for comfort. Everything ends neatly; the virtuous are victorious, the bad are punished. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/9 "2010-09-14T19:01:20Z")
Chandler. McGoorty. Bukowski. Easy to read when you really, you know, can hardly hold a page. Also Straight Dope threads. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/10 "2010-09-14T19:07:52Z")
_Bridge of Birds_ by Barry Hughart. Entertaining, funny, touching, and you can play “spot the Lewis Carroll character” if you feel like it. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/11 "2010-09-14T19:20:19Z")
Pamela Dean’s _Tam Lin_, I like pretending I live in a world where everyone is smart, sexy and magical, and always has a witty comeback. Oh, also the world of college where you have no responsibilities other than reading. Dodie Smith’s _I Capture The Castle_, the writing is just so good that it distracts me from whatever is bothering me. Rumer Godden’s _In This House Of Brede_ is especially helpful for spiritual crises, it is so realistic, one feels like one has devoted one’s life to God, without having to do any of the actual work. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/12 "2010-09-14T20:36:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > That is, don’t say _anything by C.S. Lewis_; rather, say _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it’s light and merry and has Lucy & Edmund, the best of the Pevensies, while leaving Susan at home to knit where she belongs._ This is wrong, by the way. _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ is best because it has rather a lot of Reepicheep in it. Anyway, some other favorite pick-me-ups (_Dawn Treader_ is certainly one): _The Hobbit_ — easily my favorite of the extracts from the Red Book. The author’s writing is friendlier and less conceited than the later hands to which he entrusted the accounts of the War of the Ring, which makes _There and Back Again_ the most cheering and heartwarming tale of the Third Age, even though the ending is bittersweet. _Much Obliged, Jeeves_, by Wodehouse — I might as well have said “almost anything ever written by Wodehouse,” but since that’s against the rules I’ll single out this one. “There is a tie that binds, sir.” — “Then heaven bless it, and may it continue to bind indefinitely.” 🙂 _Jacob the Baker_, by Noah benShea — maybe it’s strange that I list this here, since it’s a fairly religious book and I’m a devout (heh) atheist; but somehow I still love this little volume, trite aphorisms and all! It’s very soothing. _The Call of Cthulhu_ (and others) by H.P. Lovecraft — because no matter how I feel now, this one will always remind me that there is much worse waiting just the other side of the thin membrane which separates the feeble fever-dreams of Man from the true universe of terror and madness. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/13 "2010-09-14T20:38:22Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > _The Call of Cthulhu_ (and others) by H.P. Lovecraft — because no matter how I feel now, this one will always remind me that there is much worse waiting just the other side of the thin membrane which separates the feeble fever-dreams of Man from the true universe of terror and madness. That _is_ reassuring. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/14 "2010-09-14T20:49:45Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > > That is, don’t say _anything by C.S. Lewis_; rather, say _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it’s light and merry and has Lucy & Edmund, the best of the Pevensies, while leaving Susan at home to knit where she belongs._ > > This is wrong, by the way. _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ is best because it has rather a lot of Reepicheep in it. But only the [pre-1994 American version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Differences_between_British_and_American_editions) will do. Other versions totally pussify the Island of Dreams. I got a copy to keep around as comfort reading, and was very disappointed when I got to that part. ☹ :mad: I need to sell it at Half Price Books and look for a pre-1994 copy. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/15 "2010-09-14T20:55:26Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > But only the [pre-1994 American version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Differences_between_British_and_American_editions) will do. Other versions totally pussify the Island of Dreams. I got a copy to keep around as comfort reading, and was very disappointed when I got to that part. ☹ :mad: I need to sell it at Half Price Books and look for a pre-1994 copy. That’s bullshit. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/16 "2010-09-14T21:42:32Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > > [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > > > This is wrong, by the way. _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ is best because it has rather a lot of Reepicheep in it. > > But only the [pre-1994 American version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Differences_between_British_and_American_editions) will do. Other versions totally pussify the Island of Dreams. I got a copy to keep around as comfort reading, and was very disappointed when I got to that part. ☹ :mad: I need to sell it at Half Price Books and look for a pre-1994 copy. You are again very wise, Anne, though I understand what the Perfesser was thinking when he … ameliorated … the Dark Island. I mean, you have to admit that is a genuinely terrifying idea. “Fools! It was that kind of talk that brought me here, and now I regret the day I was born! This isn’t the island where fantasies are realized! This is the island where things that wake you in a cold sweat come to life!” That place needed nuking, and I’m happy with the idea of Aslan hearing Lucy’s prayer and deciding to send it the way of Atlantis. Off-screen, of course. ETA: I think I have two copies, in paperback, of the superior (pre-1994) version, Anne. Want me to look? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Wing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/51bf81/32.png) [@Little\_Wing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Wing)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/17 "2010-09-15T01:38:43Z")
I have to say for me it’s any of the _Dresden_ books by Jim Butcher. I’ve re-read them half a dozen times at least (still waiting on _Changes_ to come out in paperback…) and they’re still as fresh and enjoyable as they were the first time I read them. I love the humor and the heart of the stories and they’ve definitely become my go-to books when I’m in a funk. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/18 "2010-09-15T18:19:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > > > But only the [pre-1994 American version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Differences_between_British_and_American_editions) will do. Other versions totally pussify the Island of Dreams. I got a copy to keep around as comfort reading, and was very disappointed when I got to that part. ☹ :mad: I need to sell it at Half Price Books and look for a pre-1994 copy. > > You are again very wise, Anne, though I understand what the Perfesser was thinking when he … ameliorated … the Dark Island. I mean, you have to admit that is a genuinely terrifying idea. So’s the bracelet that turned Eustace (and possibly Octesian) into a dragon, or the pool that turned everything dunked in it to gold. The idea of dark, scary places in Narnia is one of the things I _like_ about _Dawn Treader_, and why I like it better than the rest of the books. I also like that bad things happen to good people in that book. There’s no evidence in the book at least that Rhoop did anything other than make an honest mistake to deserve being imprisoned on the Island of Dreams, or that Octesian did anything to deserve being eaten by (or becoming) a dragon, or that Restimar did anything to deserve being turned to gold. C.S. Lewis avoided having bad things happen only to people who sin, which is a temptation in children’s books and in religious books. It’s remarkable that _Dawn Treader_ is both of those, and yet doesn’t do that. Why would it be a special boon to not send Rhoop back to the island if he clearly didn’t want to be there? OTOH, it would be quite natural for them to ask what happened to him there. The pre-1994 American version explains why we don’t find out what happened to Rhoop on the island. > [@](#): > > ETA: I think I have two copies, in paperback, of the superior (pre-1994) version, Anne. Want me to look? Sure! Email me if it is. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/19 "2010-09-15T18:24:22Z")
[_The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy,_](http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Doctor-Eszterhazy-Avram-Davidson/dp/0913896284) by the lamented [Avram Davidson,](http://www.avramdavidson.org/) because I love that gentle, urbane, unflappable, aristocratic polymath and his Old-World world, and I simply cannot get enough of Davidson’s discursive-yet-incisive style. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737/20 "2010-09-15T20:11:11Z")
The Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. A ripping good series of sea yarns and a real live human being as the main character, with flaws and warts and self-doubts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-comfort-entertainment-literature/553737.md?page=2)