What are your comfort reads - books that you can read over and over again?

[harpomarx]

You know, those books that you have been reading for years, have old dog-eared copies of and will pick up when there is nothing new that takes your fancy.

Mine are:

Almost anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but especially The Beautiful and Damned.

Betty MacDonald - The Egg and I etc

Nancy Mitford Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate etc

J. D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye

Cold Comfort Farm

the road less travelled by M. Scott Peck

Any of Paulo Coelho's books

The Elegant Universe by Sam Greene (I think)

Kafka on the SHore by Haruki Murikami

yours sound more challenging than mine, omdb!

Frederica, Venetia, The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

Daddy Long Legs

Onions in the Stew, Plague and I - Betty McDonald

Veronica at the Wells

Any Terry Pratchett, but the years and years one is Equal Rites

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
Georgette Heyer-(Regency period)

harpo that's why I have to keep reading them, the first time they just tend to go straight over my head, but now that I've read them umpteen times they are like old friends (you know, the type that where really hard to initially make friends with but once you put the effort in it was worth it!)

any terry pratchett
the time travellers wife
clan of the cave bear
river god
colony, by the guy who wrote red dwarf, his name escapes me.
from fields of gold

Mine are:

any book by Natalia Ginzburg (an Italian writer, not sure she is known in the UK)

some short stories by katherine Mansfield

Janina David's A square of sky

and when I was a child "little women" and the diary of Anna Frank, I kept on reading it

Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Harry Potter
His Dark Materials trilogy

Have just finished Pride and Prejudice AbbeyA - Jane Austen is a semi-comfort read for me. I can't tear through them like my others 'cos you have to concentrate! And I really can never remember which one is which even though I am sure I have read nearly all of them.

Travels with my Aunt -

Any Agatha Christie

Tomorrow to be brave - Susan Travers

Any Molly Keane

Many Autobiographical WW2

Good omens-Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Lots by Stephen King

Those are the only ones I can remember reading more than twice, I love good omens so much, makes me lol. It's probably my favourite book ever.

I always turn to a Terry Prachett when I just need to comfort read, ill or stressed or tired or overemotional. Its interesting that other people say the same thing. Its like there is a Prachett shaped niche in my brain which is only satisfied by a slice of disc world - ( the only other author that will do in a crisis is Douglas Adams Dirk Gently books.) When I heard about Prachett having alzheimers (spelling??) I thought about writing to him and telling him this, that he is uniques in that way for me, despite the fact I read quite a wide range normally. Maybe now I will get off backside and do it.

Message withdrawn

World Full of Strangers. Don't know who wrote it as I've read it so many times I've lost the cover!
It about a Jewish boy in the 30's who gets married and turns his back on his heritage coz he can't get a job or anywhere to live. It very sad and makes me cry.

read Travels with my Aunt recently, daffodil - that was a really strange book. I did finish it though and have got stuck with a few Graham Greene's in the past!

Wilbur Smith: River God, Seventh Scroll, Warlock
Patricia Cornwell:Kay Scarpetta series
Conn Iggulden: Rome series and Ghengis Khan series.

cmot, I had totally forgotten about those amazing ballet stories, all those Lorna Hill books were my life for a few years. I may reread them all now. Love Daddy Long Legs too, it's so romantic. I am a total sap for rereads but love all the romances by Eva Ibbotson, full of Russian and Viennese emigres.

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

Chalet School series (not stricly adult fiction I know, but out of print for children so it counts)

Not many others actually.

Jane Austen and Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey detective stories - currently reading Unpleasantness at the Belona Club

ok, so far we have more than one vote for

Jane Austen
Terry Pratchet
Betty McDonald

have I missed any?

oh, and Harry Potter

Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
How Far Can You Go by David Lodge
Unbearable Lightness by Milan Kundera (pretentious nonsense but it makes me feel 17 again!)
Most George Orwell.

Dune.