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

[LucyJones]

Jane Austen's Emma

Jilly Cooper - especially Polo

the Silver Brumby books

[fullmoonfiend]

yup, terry Pratchett books (especuially the Witches ones and the Wee Free Men ones)

Precious Bane - Mary Webb

Jude The Obscure - Thos Hardy (actually, any Thos Hardy)

Any Margaret Atwood

Gone With The Wind

Any Barbara Vine

[oggsfrog]

Just William

[RustyBear]

Pigeon Pie - I was reading The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club last night too! Finished it this morning.

My comfort list:
Dorothy L Sayers
Michael Gilbert
Terry Pratchett
PG Wodehouse
Antonia Forest
Monica Edwards
Forsyte Saga
To Kill a Mockingbird
Cold Comfort Farm
Samuel Pepys diary

Interesting how the same ones keep coming upover & over.

[FoulOlRon]

oh forgot PG Wodehouse.

[Josephnia]

Ooh you're all so literary. I like a good thriller myself! Tess Gerritsen, Ruth Rendell, Nikki French.....I must admit I love Jane Austen too - and Nancy Mitford (and have read several biographies of the Mitford Girls- they all lived (mostly) such fascinating lives). Can't do Terry Pratchett at all - or Lord of the Rings - in fact anything with elves/fairies/made up creatures - I much prefer a bit of mass murder/forensic science along with autobiographies and history....The Godfather is probably my favourite book. Though remember staying up all night to read the Thorn Birds as a teenager - with much weeping! And mentions of the Chalet School - god I loved those....haven't got them any more, maybe DD is getting nearly big enough to reorder some from Amazon.....

[Takver]

For utter comfort reads Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer depending on how ill I am feeling (GH if I can't focus straight) And lots of Ursula le Guin, especially the Dispossessed (hence Takver . . .)

[Troutpout]

To kill a mockingbird
The red tent
Jane Eyre
The time traveller's wife
A prayer for Owen Meany

[FoulOlRon]

I'm just reading a prayer for owen meany now - it's fantastic!

[anneme]

How many of us now are going to go off and reread all kinds of books we had forgotten!
So pleased to see quite a lot of Chalet School books - they are my ultimate comfort read - I think becauseI know them and know the characters and feel safe. Also Anne books and lots of other children's books eg Just william and Jennings. Also Brideshead Revisited - I love the first half which is so evocative of a time gone by.

[MrsBumblebee]

Most have already been mentioned: Austen (esp. Sense and Sensibility), Brideshead (my maternity ward book), tons of children's books (Potter, Pullman etc).
Also the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott.
A Suitable Boy.
Peacock Spring and Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden.
Ooh, and thanks for reminding me of My Family and Other Animals - one of the ultimate comfort reads.

[FossilSister]

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. Fantastic. I even liked the BBC adaptation with Victoria Wood last Christmas. DH got me a lovely original for Valentine's Day.

Has anyone read Hens Dancing by Rafaella Barker? The heroine of that book is a mother of 2 darling sons and one baby daughter, living in Norfolk and a big Georgette Heyer fan. I haven't really conveyed how lovely it is. I buy it for all my pregnant friends.

[PigeonPie]

RustyBear - wow, that's amazing! Very that you were able to finish it this morning!

[RustyBear]

There are advantages to having teenage children - you can have a lie-in & finish your book on a Sunday!
Now I'm rereading The Documents in the Case.

[janeite]

Miss Austen of course.

Ballet Shoes
Daddy Long Legs
Famous Five (for reading in the bath when my to read pile is empty)
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
What Katy Did
Nigella - How To Eat

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[cyanarasamba]

Vanity Fair - Thackeray
A Town like Alice - Nevil Shute

And yes, Bleak House! I find the opening "fog" passage especially relaxing.

[maidamess]

Nigel Slater - The Kitchen Diaries

Anything by Anne Tyler

[Nappyzoneneedsanewname]

captain corellis mandolin

[GooseyLoosey]

Terry Pratchett for me too - requires no thought and is midly amusing.

Also have re-read many times:

1. Lord of the Rings (but no longer)
2. Dune
3. Riddle Masters Game

I have read them all so many times my copies are dropping to bits. Lately though, I have recognised that I need to find something new so will look here with interest.

[RustyBear]

Christiana - it has been made into a film, but not since 1961 - time for a remake perhaps?

[ShrinkingViolet]

another vote for Georgette Heyer, the Chalet School series, and Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men series (can't get into his proper adult ones) and the Bromeliad. And Dick Francis, and Judy Astley.
Anyone read Mike Ripley (Angel series)? He's on my shortlist of "authors I buy their books rather than take out from the library" so that the books are THERE for when you need them.

[dinny]

Jane Eyre
most Maeve Binchy
loads of Enid Blyton
loads of Christine/Josephine P-T

in short - my childhood faves