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Original poster

Your 'comfort' book(s)

143 replies

JaffaCake70 · 29/04/2023 21:32

Not necessarily your favourite book, but which book(s) do you go back to time and time again and never tire of?

For me it's:

To Kill A Mockingbird

Any Adrien Mole (I still laugh out loud nearly 40 years after first reading them).

1984

OP posts:
Flidina · 04/05/2023 08:25

Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher
Nellie and Mollie series by Joan Jonker
The High House, a children's book set in Edinburgh

AnneElliott · 03/05/2023 10:30

Anything by Austen, but specifically Persuasion (obviously)
Maeve Binchy
PD James
Drina Ballerina series
Chalet school

Clawdy · 03/05/2023 07:56

Diary Of A Nobody
The Enchanted April

Nat6999 · 02/05/2023 01:37

Chalet Scool
Blue Doors books by Pamela Brown
The Waterway Girls books by Millie Adams
The Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell
East End Angels by Rosie Hendry
Mothers Day Club by Rosie Hendry

TillyTollyTully · 02/05/2023 00:36

Narnia especially I find fascinating reading as an adult - picking up on all the Bible and religious references which went straight over my head as a child.

TillyTollyTully · 02/05/2023 00:34

Lots of children's books in mine too

Heidi (my top comfort book by a mile)
The Silver Brumby books
All the Narnia books
Harry Potter
Any by the Bronte sisters

IJustHadToLookHavingReadTheBook · 02/05/2023 00:27

All the Adrian Moles

The Queen and I by Sue Townsend

Time for Bed by David Baddiel

Are You Dave Gorman? By Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace

The collected Charlie Brooker columns for The Guardian

minsmum · 01/05/2023 23:28

Georgette Heyer, particularly The Grand Sophy, The Unknown Ajax. Josephine Tey The Franchise Affair and Jennifer Crusie, Welcome to Temptation, Faking it and Bet Me

timetochangethename · 01/05/2023 23:14

@IceCreamNuts I love that quote, thank you

MerelyPlaying · 01/05/2023 22:56

Jane Austen, always. Georgette Heyer, Dorothy L Sayers, the Cazalet Chronicles. The Patrick O'Brien novels about Aubrey & Maturin - currently listening to these as audiobooks borrowed free from the library. Anthony Powell 'Dance to The Music of Time'. And yes, Noel Streatfield and Swallows & Amazons, always comforting.

CurlewKate · 01/05/2023 22:46

Jane Austen
Antonia Forest
Maeve Binchey.

IceCreamNuts · 01/05/2023 22:24

timetochangethename · 01/05/2023 08:09

@JaffaCake70 I still have them all, some have dated better than others.

There's a documentary that came out a couple of weeks ago called Judy Blume Forever on Amazon prime. She's such a lovely lady.

The film of Margaret is out in the cinemas next month. The reviews from the US that I've seen have been good. I can't wait!

I recently stumbled back upon Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and enjoyed it just as much as the first time I read it as a 12 year old. Looking forward to seeing the film.

IceCreamNuts · 01/05/2023 22:18

timetochangethename · 30/04/2023 09:44

Mine are all children's books

Are you there god? it's me Margaret
Back home
Diceys Song

I don't think I've ever read a book in adulthood that I've loved as much as these

That's a good point... if I'm feeling under the weather I find comfort in revisiting favourites from my childhood/early teens like Nancy Drew.

There's a line in the film You've Got Mail that I think of from time to time: "When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

JaneyGee · 01/05/2023 19:48

Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

Tolkien: The Hobbit

The Narnia books

Robert Graves: Goodbye to all That

Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray

Dickens: David Copperfield

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Aldous Huxley: Crome Yellow, also his essays and The Doors of Perception

Orwell: Essays

Bryson: Notes from a Small Island

Wodehouse: Jeeves and Wooster novels (not the short stories)

Woolf: Mrs Dalloway

Douglas Adams: Hitchiker’s Guide

Stephen Fry: Moab is my Washtub

Zebracat · 01/05/2023 18:58

@Evelyn Beatrice. Definitely Eva Ibbotsen the Morning Gift.

EvelynBeatrice · 01/05/2023 11:58

@Zebracat I hope you love the Thing About Jane Spring. I have bought it for so many people. Anything you’d recommend for me? I’m sitting on a balcony somewhere sunny today and have just finished my JD Robb. Fancy a change from murder

Taytocrisps · 01/05/2023 11:32

JaffaCake70 · 01/05/2023 07:45

I remember reading loads of Jude Blume's in school, I'll make a note to re visit them, especially Margaret.. We must, we must.....

Show quote history

When I heard they were making a movie of the book, that line came into my head Smile

Zebracat · 01/05/2023 11:26

I’ve ordered the Sharon Krum mentioned upthread, cant wait!

pastapestoparmesan · 01/05/2023 08:09

Noel Streatfeild
Homecoming
80s/90s Jean ure
trebizon

I agree with pp, no adult book has had anything like the same impression on me as the above.

timetochangethename · 01/05/2023 08:09

@JaffaCake70 I still have them all, some have dated better than others.

There's a documentary that came out a couple of weeks ago called Judy Blume Forever on Amazon prime. She's such a lovely lady.

The film of Margaret is out in the cinemas next month. The reviews from the US that I've seen have been good. I can't wait!

Original poster
JaffaCake70 · 01/05/2023 07:45

timetochangethename · 30/04/2023 09:44

Mine are all children's books

Are you there god? it's me Margaret
Back home
Diceys Song

I don't think I've ever read a book in adulthood that I've loved as much as these

I remember reading loads of Jude Blume's in school, I'll make a note to re visit them, especially Margaret.. We must, we must.....

OP posts:
LunaNorth · 01/05/2023 07:34

I dip into my favourite scenes from Great Expectations sometimes, too, when I need a little lift.

The scene when Joe Gargery visits Pip in London is a tragi-comic masterpiece.

IWishIWasABaller · 01/05/2023 02:12

The red tent
Adrian mole books
Any maeve binchy book
Memoirs of a geisha

merrymelodies · 01/05/2023 02:02

So many comfort books! Another one I thought of is Rumer Godden's The Greengage Summer. Also, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (apparently 14 American states have banned it as "too pornographic"!), A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Shogun by James Clavell, The Stand by Stephen King... I've read all of these so many times. They're like old friends.

BeatrizViter · 01/05/2023 01:18

The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason is a all time favourite reread.
Both the Secret History and the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.
For Terry Pratchett- Thief of Time and Witches Abroad.
For non fiction How to be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis- for everyone who put Ballet Shoes- there's a chapter on this! I have never read it but it made me want to. Also she does an awesome overview of Lace by Shirley Conran which was my teenage comfort read. I never realised just how feminist it was until Ellis summed it up.

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