What's your comfort book?

[Ellisisland]

The book you return to again and again. I have just finished reading three new quite heavy books and fancy re reading something that I've enjoyed before so hoping to pick your collective brains

Heidi :-) Anne of green gables :-) and harry potter :-) currently reading harry with my daughters and will be reading Anne with them in the next few months as we are of to price Edward island for our hold. Even writing this list made me happy!

Nancy Mitford: Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love.

Jilly Cooper novels - I read a lot of 'very serious' books for work so the tacky capering of the rich and bitch set in Jilly Cooper are great escapism. 'The Secret History' is one I reread too. Now, I know this is going to seem weird but I like to reread 'The Female Eunuch' as well, I know it is outdated but it was the very first feminist book I read (and wrote about at 15) so it has some fond memories for me. I have reread a lot of Orwell books but I'm not sure they are my 'comfort books.'

I am soooo tempted to read The Twins at St Clare's and Mallory Towers again after reading this thread, I also want to reread 'My Family and other Animals' as a result of this thread.

Middlemarch xx

off to PEI - wow can i come
I love the Anne books.

Going Gently by David Nobbs
Any of the Precious Ramotswe books by Alexander McCall Smith
Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
Harry Potter

The Mistress of the Art of Death series.

Bleak House. Such a wonderful achievement of creating a huge, sweeping canvas of characters. There is a scene where Jo the crossing sweeper is sitting on the steps of St Pauls Cathedral munching some bread, and it's so beautifully written, with the mud below and the shining dome above, and it always makes me cry.

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. Love her books in general, but particularly this one.

Oh I love Going Gently by David Nobbs. I have a passage marked for my funeral (not soon I hope!).
"Life is a relay-race. Pass the baton".

Lost art of keeping secrets by Eva Rice - also The Misinterpretation of Tara Judd by the same...she is just such a charming writer!

Lonely Werewolf Girl and its sequels by Martin Millar

Ooh, I love threads like this:

Anything by Jane Austen
Any Miss Marple (especially A Murder is Announced)
Any Discworld book (especially Mort)

but my absolute favourite comfort stories are those I remember from my childhood and now get to enjoy all over again with my kids:

The Talking Parcel (fabulous children's story by Gerald Durrell that no-one has ever heard of. It's about a fantastical country called Mythologia that's populated with mythological creatures and a batty inventor/magician. I can't understand why it's out of print, let alone why it hasn't been made into a film!)

The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye (lovely story about the youngest of seven perfect princess, who's given the 'gift' of 'ordinariness' by a crotchety fairy and finds that she rather enjoys it...)

I shall definitely be checking out some of your recommendations on Amazon!

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Nancherrow - Rosamund Pilcher
Echoes - Maeve Binchy
Pineapple Tart - Anne Dunlop

I have been bandying this around all day but Persuasion (rather obviously) but I often just pick it up and read Chapter 23. Read P&P again recently and it was very comforting.

I wish some of you were my real life friends! So much good stuff.

I Capture the Castle
Cold Comfort Farm
Moomintroll
Emma
A Vicarage Family (Noel Streatfeild)

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Don't know how many times I've read it over the years, but it always makes me laugh.

Mine are:
Antonia Forest's Marlowe books
All the Anne of Green Gables books
I Capture the Castle

All of which were childhood favourites.

Valley of the dolls
A woman of substance
Their eyes were watching god

Waiting to exhale

This is a fantastic thread! Thank you for reminding me of so many great books. I read 'Clan of the Cave Bear', Jean Auel, annually. Also 'Catcher in the Rye' and 'Diary of a Nobody'. Just finished 'Persuasion' again. Bliss

Lovely thread! Mine are:
P. G. Wodehouse (especially Jeeves and Blandings Castle)
Jane Austen - all of them, but favourites are P&P and Persuasion
Georgette Heyer
Agatha Christie (Miss Marple series)
John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey books and Summer's Lease)

Anything by Dorothy L Sayers, Dick Francis or Terry Pratchett

I love the Anne of Green Gables series - so comforting, and also love rereading the shadow of the wind books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - every time I reread them I get something new that I missed before. Will definitely be revisiting Bleak House and Jane Austen books after this - I loved them.

Little Women and Good Wives. Gone With The Wind. War and Peace.
My favourite books of all time. The only ones I would never lend out as they are old lovely editions. More than books to me.

The Late Mr. Early Joan Hewett (out of print)
Pomfret Towers Angela Thirkell
The Little White Horse Elizabeth Goudge
Friday's Child, Venetia, The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer
Persuasion Jane Austen
A Christmas Carol, read every Christmas
The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
Fanfare for Elizabeth Edith Sitwell
All on a shelf by my bed, all comfort reading, but good in summer on the sun-lounger.

Wuthering Heights and if poetry counts, Penguin Modern Poets 10 with poems by Roger Mcgough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten.

Doctors by Eric Segal, a warm story that traces two children, a boy and a girl as they make their choices and events that cause them to choose medicine. How they turn to each other in crisis as they make a mess of their personal lives and share professional successand you keep wondering if they will ever get together. That and a set of other characters, friends they make along the way whose lives are interesting too. Oh, that I one book I turn to again and again and Jeffrey Archer's Prodigal daughter. Love the relationship between the female protagnist and her governess as she teaches her some important life lessons which go on to make her the next president.