Comfort reading?

CDVicarage brought up "comfort reading" on the October reading thread.

Anybody have a book or you reach for when the going gets tough and you need extended "down time"?

Definition: Gotta be a book that you've worn out reading and have or need to buy a new copy of.

Mine are Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, Abel Sanchez, The Little World of Don Camillo and The Once and Future King.

Mists of Avalon, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, and most Jane Austen.

A lot of Georgette Heyer--The Grand Sophy, Cotillion, The Unknown Ajax. And A College of Magics and amazingly, some non-fiction: A Man on the Moon and The Medical Detectives.

Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith come to mind.

The Miss Read books set in Fairacre or Thrush Green, Diary of a Provincial Lady and many 'Girlsown' titles but especially the Chalet School books.

#5 I've only read Gormenghast once, a long time ago but I can't remember finding it comforting in any way!

Anything by Maeve Binchy. Her books are like putting on a warm pair of slippers and sipping wine with friends.

Miss Read's Fairacre books (I haven't tried the Thrush Green ones), pony books (such as those by Josephine Pullein-Thompson or Ruby Ferguson), the Chalet School series, Robin McKinley's Beauty, I capture the castle and many of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. And Jane Eyre.

Little Women and Eight Cousins. Louisa May knows how to make things better.

Because of my massive TBR pile, I don't reread books very often, but when I do I steer towards Jane Austen and the Brontes. A lot of 19th century lit will do--Dickens, Hardy, Tolstoy.

#7 -Maeve Binchy used to be my go-to comfort, so I can understand your choice.

#8 - I used to love the Pony books!

I am Sakerfalcon's sister in comfort reading: Georgette Heyer, pony books, Mis Read and any children's books actually, esp classic ones.

Jane Austen's books or anything that was a favorite when I was a kid. Behind the Attic Wall is probably the most tattered book I own.

Also, re-reading a particularly funny story by David Sedaris is sometimes enough to put me back in a good mood.

The Brontes, especially Charlotte. Also, Elizabeth Gaskell, Antonia White.

Oh--pony books reminded me of another favorite comfort read--Laura Ingalls Wilder. And an obscure series about growing up in Scotland by Lavinia Derwent that starts IIRC with A Border Bairn. Now I have to go re-read them...

Yes, to Laura Ingalls Wilder! It's interesting that so many of us turn to the same books/authors for comfort.

Just discovered this thread. My long-time go-to comfort reads are Honor Tracy's The Straight and Narrow Path and Cold Comfort Farm, but I think We Have Always Lived in the Castle is going to creep onto the list.

Hmm--I never thought of that as a very comforting read--do by any chance you mean Shirley Jackson, or Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle?

I do mean the Shirley Jackson. It is delightfully creepy and just the thing to transport me away from whatever is bothering me. I need absorbing diversion for comfort reads, not necessarily something "comfortable."

Oh, I do agree with rebecca - nothing like a good ghost story for comfort reading!

The Lord of the Rings

when I was growing up, it was always Anne of Green Gables. I could always count on Anne.

when I was growing up, it was always Anne of Green Gables. I could always count on Anne.

Yes! Really anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery falls into this category.

Emily kicked Annie's butt!

I'm having a hard time concentrating right now because of a recent bereavement and I find myself being drawn back to my much-loved collection of Daphne du Maurier books. I know them so well it doesn't matter if my thoughts drift from time to time but they are too enthralling for that to happen very often.

> 23 Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope the books are comforting you!

#24 Thank you sweetiegherkin - books always help.

Also sorry to hear about your loss. Sometimes a really absorbing book from another time period helps too.

Thanks Rebecca. Certainly Ms Du M can always whisk me away into another world - the ultimate purpose of comfort reading.

When in a difficult couple of months at the beginning of the year I very much enjoyed Georgette Heyers, Three Investigators kids' mysteries and Viragoes.