I lie back in bed, open Beat to Quarters, by C.S. Forrester, and start off -
And I am hooked again.
Works every time.
Regards,
Shodan
I know. It’s a real bitch to track down. I have been trying for years.
Yes. I know. 
Ack! I forgot Forester. One of my favorites, except I prefer his later ones.
[ul][li]Patrick F. McManus’s early books (up to The Night The Bear Ate Goombaw)[/li][li]A book about the 1985 Salt Lake City bombings called A Gathering of Saints[/li][li]Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg[/li][li]Penthouse Forum[/li][/ul]
Just kidding about the last one.
It’s actually Variations.
I should also add Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series, Lawrence Block’s Burglar books, and George MacDonald Fraser’s The Pyrates.
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? 
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.
I read the Space Battle from the end of Niven and Pournelle’s Footfall.
Wham!
Wham!
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
An Agatha Christie
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
Ah, and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
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.
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.
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.