What is your comfort book

[travellingwilbury]

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 ?

Complete trash, but enjoyable trash, I always turn to John Grisham's The Firm for a comfort read.

This will make me sound very morbid, but I love the last Inspector Morse. Yes, he dies, but you find out all sorts about his relationships with his colleagues and it's kind of heartwarming.

Pride and Prejudice

or something by Maeve Binchy.

The Secret History
Anything by Jilly Cooper
Anything by Stephen King.

Emma

or any one of the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell

A friend and I have a theory that in those times when we want to escape from our real lives without being challenged in any way, we go for what we lack. In my case that would be Regency romance or fighting with swords. She prefers a little bit of medieval sleuthing.

jeanette winterson sexing the cherry - although i pick and choose which bits to read to cheer me up!

The Chalet School. It's relaxing to read about yet another avalanche/sledging accident/mad person abducting a princess.

Bridget Jones or Bill Bryson.

Or a really gory, but formulaic Karin Slaughter/P Cornwell etc. Good old pageturner where you don't have to think too much.

I have still not read Pride and Prejudice

On your theory foundwanting I am lacking an arm up a sheeps nethers in my life which is of course very true .

My fav comfort book is Lessico Familiare by Natalia Ginzburg. Any book by Natalia Ginzburg, really, I know them almost by heart.

Also anything Jeeves.

I re read Katherine Mansfield's short stories.

India Knight.

Posy Simmonds

Ah, also Melissa Banks novels are perfect comfort books. And Ruth Reichl.

I haven't got an arm up a sheep either .

Francesca is lacking a bit of comedy, I think. Have you tried a comedy wig?

Don't want to encourage Bucharest to fill the missing part of her life.

You need to try James Herriot then

Am I the only one that still reads these ?
I think I wanted to lead this kind of life when I was young .

Anything by Jilly Cooper - not very highbrow but if I ever go on Mastermind, it will be my specialist subject!

Mine are the EF Benson Mapp and Lucia books. And old Jilly Coopers (not the more recent ones).

Quite a lot of Jilly Coopers, then

Georgette Heyer, Terry Pratchett, Cold Comfort Farm or Jane Austen, particularly Mansfield Park. Also huge fat Victorian novels, Trollope and the like - nice and soap-opera-y.

I've just realised that all my reading is comfort reading, more or less!

Darn, forgot to say Travellingwilbury, no you're not the only person who reads those. We inherited a stack of those and like to sink into Heriot's vetinarian embrace every now and again!

I knew I couldn't be the only one that loves the Herriot .

Cremolafoamfan - your post reminded me that I do love a bit of Vanity Fair, too, has to be said. Definitely soap-opera-esque.

I love the Herriott books too, but my comfort foods are Duma Key by Stephen King (has to be that one, not one of the others) or any of the Vimes books by Terry Pratchett.

Jane Austen
Harry Potter
The Lord Of The Rings

Or a children's book such as Ballet Shoes or Charlotte Sometimes or Daddy Long Legs or What Katy Did. Or the Famous Five.

Or Bill Bryson but not the scary Short History Of The World one as I need my brain for that and haven't always got it!

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte,tis wonderful, I also love The Secret History. Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard is fab
I have been trying to get my mitts on "Cold Comfort farm" and "Diary of a Nobody" but to no avail...

What do you m,ean by comfort reading? I don't read anything hard going.

My FAVE book is 'Goodnight Mr Tom'. It's been my fave for years.