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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:
KingscoteStaff · 30/04/2023 08:49

Gaudy Night
Night Watch (actually, any Vimes ones)
The Long Winter
Good Omens (now on 3rd copy)

CatChant · 30/04/2023 08:46

All of Jane Austen,
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell,
Patrick O’ Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin series,
Three Men in a Boat, Three Men on the Bummel - Jerome K Jerome,
EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia novels,
Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith,
The Franchise Affair, Brat Farrar, Miss Pym Disposes, The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey,
All Ngaio Marsh,
Lord Peter Wimsey novels - Dorothy L Sayers,
Brother Cadfael novels - Ellis Peters,
MV Hughes London Child series,
All MR James,
Doreen Tovey’s Cats in the Belfry series,
Antonia Forest’s Marlows novels,
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame,
All of Edith Nesbit,
The Secret Garden, A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett,
The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper,
Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer,
The Amazing Mr Blunden - Antonia Barber,
Lucy M Boston’s Green Knowe series,
All Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce,
All Diana Wynne Jones but especially Charmed Life,
The Voyage of QV66 - Penelope Lively,
Come Back Lucy - Pamela Sykes,
All Cynthia Harnett,
The Dolls’ House, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, - Rumer Godden.

AuntieJune · 30/04/2023 08:41

Hitchhiker's guide and dirk gently! Always make you see the ridiculousness of everything and remind me of the 80s :)

wobblyweasel · 30/04/2023 08:38

The Little Women series of books
Black Beauty
David Eddings' sagas
Any of the Discworld novels especially with the witches
Jilly Cooper the rutshire chronicles,
The Shopaholic books

DustyLee123 · 30/04/2023 08:37

I have lots that I re-read, the Twopence to Cross the Mersey books, many of Maeve Binchy’s books, and Rosamunde Pilcher too.

Paramummy3 · 30/04/2023 08:35

Eleanor Oliphant

bathshebaeverbusy · 30/04/2023 08:34

The Go Between by L.P. Hartley

LadySybilRamekin · 30/04/2023 08:33

Many of the above, plus Terry Pratchett of course!

Neverknowinglysensible · 30/04/2023 08:27

Anything by:
Georgette Heyer - Arabella and Cotillion especially
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Diana Wynne Jones
Mary Stewart
The Revenants by Sheri S Tepper
Seraphina by Jean Merrell

and weirdly, Food in England by Dorothy Hartley

EmmaGrundyForPM · 30/04/2023 08:18

Another vote for the Anne of Green Gables series here

The Marlow books by Antonia Forest.

Jane Austen

Of Human Bondage

MissCherryCakeyBun · 30/04/2023 08:14

The stand by Stephen King just adore the book and have read it countless times
The Hobbit, my dad read it to us as children ( and the Lord of the rings) and it reminds me of being tucked up in bed with my dad reading to me and my brother. I'm in my mid 50's and my dad died ten years ago so it's a lovely memory.

Random789 · 30/04/2023 08:00

My comfort book is 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith.

Oh, yes maranella, that is a wonderful book. I didn't discover it until adulthood. If I had read it as a child it would have become hardwired into me and I would have re-read it a dozen times.

MrsMitford3 · 30/04/2023 07:56

I too am finding so many similarities-
my user name gives me away here
I re-read all the the Nancy Mitford's regularly-fav is Love in a Cold Climate
Anne of Green Gables
All of Jane Austen-currently Persuasion
Secret Garden/Little Princess
Noel Streatfield -esp Dancing Shoes and Ballet Shoes
Little Women

I adore re-reading books and also listen to them on audible when I walk which is such a pleasure.

There are a few on this thread I'm going back to!! Def think Rebecca!

maranella · 30/04/2023 07:54

Flowers in the Attic as a comfort book? I'm still traumatised by that book and I read in the mid-80s!

My comfort book is 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith.

LouisaMayAlcott · 30/04/2023 07:52

Luredbyapomegranate · 30/04/2023 01:18

Cazalet Chronicles
Olivia Joules
Eat, Pray Love
jeeves and Wooster
Jilly Cooper
Shardlake
Pride and Prejudice
The Country Girls
Maeve Binchy Circle of Friends
The Rosie Project
Marion Keyes
Jojo Moynes
Tony Parsons
David Nicolls
Gatty’s Tale
Susan Cooper
Ballet Shoes

and weirdly, Tana French

Yes! Jilly Cooper and Shardlake for sure! And, du Maurier's The King's General and Miss Read.

LikeAnOldFriend · 30/04/2023 07:46

I'm also fascinated that others are so similar. Looks like the classics are a big comfort!

Anne of Green Gables 100% for me, there are a few particular books in the series that I love best for comfort reads.

Also Little Women, The Secret Garden and any Jane Austen.

And a bit more modern - I love to re-read Bridget Jones, feel like I am just sitting laughing with an old friend.

And weirdly a total go-to for re-reading and comfort is I love some memoirs by Tom Cox about life with his cats. He's written lots of more nature writing books since that he def prefers but something about the books about the cats just captures for me day to day life with pets and I like reading them.

fluckityfluckfluck · 30/04/2023 07:42

Rachel's holiday.
All the Cormoran Strike series

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 30/04/2023 07:41

Sherlock Holmes short stories, Arthur Conan Doyle
Blandings and Jeeves stories, P. G. Wodehouse
Most things by Agatha Christie (actually lots of Golden Age and later 20th century British whodunnits, e.g. Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Patricia Wentworth, Michael Gilbert)
Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
South Riding, Winifred Holtby
Any Jane Austen novel - Persuasion is my favourite
More or less any novel by Evelyn Waugh (not as keen on Brideshead Revisited)
A Dance to the Music of Time, 12 novel series by Anthony Powell
Swallows and Amazons series - First read when I was 7 or 8, have re-read them all countless times, never tire of them

Random789 · 30/04/2023 07:37

All of the Jane Austen.

I remember myself anchored to Sense and Sensibility when I was terrified by a crisis my son was going through at university. Sometimes literally afraid to stop reading because of the thoughts that would crash in. But even in that situation it gave me such comfort and pleasure.

Motheranddaughter · 30/04/2023 07:33

Penny Vincenzi books

Original poster
JaffaCake70 · 30/04/2023 07:30

I read mainly biographies and autobiographies. I'm obsessed with old Hollywood, especially the silent era.

Favourites include:

Swanson on Swanson

Running Wild (Clara Bow)

Vamp (Theda Bara)

Silent Snowbird (Alma Rubens)

Anything by Michael G Ankerich

OP posts:
Speedweed · 30/04/2023 07:20

Middlemarch, because all the drama comes from small things.

Vanity Fair, because I love how spirited Becky Sharp is when everything is against her.

Original poster
JaffaCake70 · 30/04/2023 07:09

Rasputinsbeard · 30/04/2023 00:25

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and a children's book called Dragon Summer by Ruth M Arthur.

I love Rebecca too 😊

OP posts:
YewandOak · 30/04/2023 03:03

BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger · 30/04/2023 02:32

The Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel. I have lost count of the times I have read them.

Same here.

also Anne of Green Gables - currently reading Rilla of Ingleside.
Coming Home and The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.
Jane Eyre

BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger · 30/04/2023 02:32

The Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel. I have lost count of the times I have read them.

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