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

[EsmeWeatherwax]

Another vote for Terry Pratchett here, my ultimate go to books. Also like the No 1 ladies Detective Agency books, they kept me sane in the weeks after dd's birth, when my poor hormonally addled brain wouldn't let me sleep while she slept, so I read them instead.

[Onlyaphase]

Jilly Cooper - Riders and Rivals
Any of the old Mary Stewart books other than Merlin ones
Susan Howatch - any of hers
Neville Shute - In the Wet, Town like Alice
Narnia books
Clare Chambers

and another vote for Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[fishie]

hatrick ohh millymollymandy you are so lucky to have girls.

i like joan aiken for a soothing reread. georgette heyer is for serious mental disturbance and jilly cooper bella, octavia etc for full breakdown.

josephine tey, margery allingham for drooping around. chalet school anytime.

[hellish]

John Irving - all of his but especially Hotel New Hampshire

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Five Quarters of the Orange

Time Travelllers Wife

[bearmama]

The Silver Crown - Robert o'Brien
Heroes and Villains - Angela Carter
A Vicious Circle - Amanda Craig
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Time Travellers Wife
Fire Child - Sally Emerson
The Stand In - Deborah Moggach
A Stranger Came Ashore -Mollie Hunter

[MrsBumblebee]

Christiana, have you read the Peacock Spring? If anything, I like it even more than Greengage Summer.
On the childrens' book front, I forgot Susan Cooper. The Dark is Rising is such a great Christmas book, I tend to reread it most years.

[aDad]

I'm always so behind on things that I want to read that I can never bring myself to re-read anything.

I can't think of a single book that I've re-read as an adult.

[christiana]

Message withdrawn

[thumbwitch]

All of Gerogette Heyer - I have the full set of period romances and the detective stuff too (except Penhallow - hated it)

Pride and Prejudice

All Terry Pratchett Discworld stuff except Jingo - bit of a trial; Good Omens definitely; and the Johnny series.

Anne of Green Gables series every few years

P.G. Wodehouse - Jeeves and Wooster

Harry Potter

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

Marian Keyes, especially Rachel's Holiday (it might not be the best feel good one but it's a powerfully moving story)

Calvin & Hobbs cartoon books

Maureen Lipman's autobiographical books

[thumbwitch]

Also forgot Susan Cooper the Dark is Rising series

[AwakeStill]

I have a running convo with DH about this - he is trying to introduce me to the concept of re-reading a book and comfort reading etc. I think - there are so many books out there that I haven't read that I think of re-reading as wasting time iyswim. I am I think better at remembering endings than him, and I can't bear being in the middle of a book once I've remembered the end.

Anyway, his are: Just William, Ian Fleming (James Bond), Billy Bunter (Magnet books, from eons ago), Stephen King, C.S. Lewis and some Dennis Lehane and Harlan Coben. And he is SOOOO ASHAMED, but Jeffrey Archer too. HEE.

[harpomarx]

know what you mean AwakeStill, but I also hate wasting time starting a book and then realizing I just don't care enough to carry on. Sometimes the comfort read is just cos you need to read but just can't find the book. I have a handful of books lying around that I just can't seem to pick up and start.

[differentID]

Anne McCaffrey Pern series, especially the ones based in the Harper Hall

[bakealot]

Terry Pratchett here too, especially if Sam Vines is in it!
These is My Words The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 - Nancy E Turner, some of it makes me cry though

[Amey]

Pride and Prejudice, IMO is such a perfect book for re-reading. Beautifully written, gossipy, and so much more to it than you get on your first read.

My attidude has changed to the characters over time. When I last read it (a couple of months ago) I actually found myself identifing with the over anxious, pushy mother, Mrs Bennett!!! How scary is that?

[ChicaLovesBranstonPickle]

I loved the Chalet school series when I was younger. I think I reread them SO many times. Then I went to a real life boarding school and things were different My DM forced encouraged me to give them away to charity when I was about 15. So I'll never know if they're good to reread as an adult.

My rereads are:
A time traveller's wife (yes, I know it's been trashed on here, but I like trash sometimes ok?!)

Pride and Prejudice

Anything by Anne Tyler (the woman's a genius writer)

Annie Proulx - Brokeback Mountain (and I read this WAY before the film )

[InLoveWithSweeneyTodd]

any garcia marquez, and borges and e a poe short stories.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Another vote for Riders, Rivals and Polo, and also Jilly Cooper's Class, written in the 70's and very funny.

Also Pride and Prejudice.

And Silas Marner by George Eliot, read that a couple of times a year.

Absolute favourites are diaries, so comfort reading faves are Pepys and Alan Clark.

[OrmIrian]

Bleak House
Villette
LOTR
Woman on the edge of time
Azimov's Foundation series
Brian Aldiss Heliconia books.
Terry Pratchett.

[SauerKraut]

Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge.

[TillyScoutsmum]

To Kill a Mockingbird

Recently passed a box of books from my teen years and have rediscovered my Jean Plaidy books

[OrmIrian]

Jean Plaidy! Ha...I remember those. I used to buy them by the bucket load. Gave them away to the church jumble sale when I was about 17 - I clearly remember seeing them sold and feeling a little bit choked.

[TillyScoutsmum]

I put mine in a box for the charity shop and then took them back out again and started reading them . Will now save them for dd (no antique heirlooms here !)