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Original poster

What is your comfort book

112 replies

travellingwilbury · 08/02/2011 13:25

If I have read something particularly hard going I always turn to my James Herriot books for a bit of comfort . They are just so cosy and comfy and always cheer me up .

I know they are all pretty much the same
Cow dies / cow lives
grumpy/happy farmer
grumpy dog / farty dog

But I love them

What is yours ?

OP posts:
scottishmummy · 15/02/2011 17:56

the grass is singing
1984
unbearable lightness of being

JackieNo · 15/02/2011 17:51

You lot keep reminding me of other ones - The Rachel Papers could be one of mine too, and Love in a Cold Climate.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/02/2011 16:37

Damon Runyon - pure escapism and such great characters.
Raymond Chandler.
Sherlock Holmes
Miss Pettigrew lives for a day
Adrian Mole
Janet Evanovich
Agatha Christie.

I realise I would like to live in the 1930s amid courteous gangsters and glamorous molls.

NicknameTaken · 15/02/2011 16:19

Adrian Mole books
E F Benson Mapp & Lucia books
E M Delafield Diary of a Provincial Lady
Barbara Pym
Terry Pratchett
Kenneth Grahame The Wind in the Willows
Nancy Mitford Love in a Cold Climate
Jill Tweedie Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist
Rose Macaulay The Towers of Trebizond
In Ruins by Christoper Woodward
The Boy that Books Built by Francis Spufford
Ex libris Anne Fadiman
The End of Elsewhere by Taras Griscoe (reminds me of how uncomfortable exotic travel really is)

I apparently need a lot of comforting in my life.

globex · 15/02/2011 15:04

EF Benson
PG Wodehouse

Lucky Jim
The Rachel Papers
A Confederacy of Dunces

Servalan · 15/02/2011 14:29

Adrian Mole
Tales of the City
anything by Marian Keyes
Robert Rodi novels

ReshapeWhileDamp · 15/02/2011 14:00

Ooh, and Cold Comfort Farm.

And Tales of the City!

ReshapeWhileDamp · 15/02/2011 13:59

Pterry Pratchett, esp. the 'city watch' books.
Possession, A.S.Byatt.
The Secret History.
Jane Eyre.
Gerald Durrell's Corfu books.
Posy Simmonds Guardian cartoons, c. 1983. Grin

Raffaella Barker's oh-so-Bunty books about living in Norfolk amid charming, boho chaos. Blush

Southender · 15/02/2011 13:53

When I'm depressed I re-read "The Listeners" by Monica Dickens, which is about the Samaritans. It always reminds me that my life is OK really.

Shodan · 15/02/2011 13:33

Definitely James Herriot, esp the one with Cedric the farting Boxer.

Miss Read- any of them. So gentle and undemanding and makes me wish I had such an idyllic lifestyle.

YY to Bill Bryson.

And a book called 'Giggling in the shrubbery'- a collection of memoirs of boarding-school girls from the early to mid 1900s. So funny.

Jux · 15/02/2011 13:16

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies; it is so gently profound that I am immediately whisked into a warm bath.

Terry Pratchett is good for a laugh, but doesn't bear too many re-readings.

Georgelassosthemoon · 12/02/2011 18:11

Another one for Jilly Cooper (Rivals, Imogen and The Common Years), Pride and Prejudice and any Bill Bryson. Also the Ruth Rendell Wexford whodunnits.

wolfbrother · 12/02/2011 15:23

Forgot to add Miss Garnet's Angel

wolfbrother · 12/02/2011 15:16

Jane Austin
A Suitable boy (Vikram Seth)
Libby Purvis
Maeve Binchy
Lots of children's books including Wolves of Willoughby Chase, any by Michelle Magorian and of course...Michelle Paver (Wolfbrother)

WimpleOfTheBallet · 12/02/2011 09:21

Little Women and What Katy Did always do it for me.

They take me back to when I fist discovered them around 10..which was a magical year in many ways.

When I re-read them I feel the same way.

Oumasrusks · 12/02/2011 09:14

I also turn to children's books for comfort reading - Anne of Green Gables, Noel Streatfeild, Enid Blyton and I especially seek out my school stories books like Dorita Fairlie Bruce, the Chalet School books etc. Oh, and also the Drina ballet ones by Jean Estoril.

Maud2011 · 10/02/2011 15:01

I head straight for my favourite children's books when I need a comfort read ... Laura Ingalls Wilder, Narnia, Enid Blyton, The Secret Garden.

BlooKangaWonders · 10/02/2011 12:00

Lemon - my other comfort book is Graham Greene's 'the end of the affair'....

BrainOrArse · 10/02/2011 00:01

I can see it as a comfort book too though tbh. It reminds me of college and a good time in my life.

LemonDifficult · 09/02/2011 23:37

Child in Time as a Comfort Book Shock?

This would be the one where his little DC get abducted from a supermarket?!

So, Bloo, what do you read when you want a wake-up discomforting book?!

BrainOrArse · 09/02/2011 20:54

The robin hobb fitz/liveship/fools ones

Valley of the dolls

spanky2 · 09/02/2011 20:54

Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin. It's like a cuddle from an old friend.

BlooKangaWonders · 09/02/2011 20:51

Always reread Ian macewan' the child in time. Not a remotely comforting book, but knowing it so well always works for me!

Truckdriver · 09/02/2011 20:38

I also go for P&P, Anne of GG, Shell Seekers, Daddy Long legs,

But also: Camermile(sp) Lawn, a children's series by Tamaroa Pierce - The Lioness (has anyone ever read these - I was addicted when a kid), and a book called 'These is my words'.

I usually read these when staying at my parents as they are still on my book shelves in my old room Blush

CJCregg · 09/02/2011 18:47

IlsaLund Smile (love your name, too)