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 time traveller's wife was considered trashy was it? how interesting - i thought it was a fascinating concept but haven't re-read it yet.

I tend to go in 3 year cycles for most re-reads - that is about the length of time for me to forget enough of it.

My DH can't understand why I still have all my books (except for the ones I will never read again that get sent to charity shops) as he has an excellent memory so never bothers to re-read anything (not that he reads much anyway).

I have just re-read Fried Green Tomatoes and am trying to find Daisy Fay and the MIracle Man (both by Fannie Flagg) in my collection - I know it's there somewhere!!

I often read the following books:

• The Little House of the Prairie Series (it reminds me of my Mum reading to me as a child).
• Gone With the Wind (I like to read it when ill).
• Wuthering Heights (I grew-up on a moor and have a real affinity with this book).
• The Grass in Singing by Dorris Lessing (a very bleak book that helps me remember how much I have).

Rumer Godden.

My top comfort reads are also Love in a Cold Climate and the Lord Peter Wimsey stories, especially Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon, which just make me swoon.

Jane Eyre for some reason. And I love the Woman in White and also David Copperfield, Oliver and Great Expectations.

FallenMadonna - I love those books so much I contemplated naming myself LadyPeterWimsey when I first started on MN. Although oddly enough in RL he would not be my type at all.

Bleak House

SweeneyTodd - have you read Julio Cortázar? Think you would love him if you like Borges and Poe. Also Horacio Quiroga, a Uruguayan writer with a taste for the gothic.

I love Borges too, haven't read him for some time now but think you've inspired me to go back!

Fallen Madonna - love Lord Peter Wimsey and in fact any 'old English' type mystery books eg Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh etc. Not high brow but hey?

I don't really re-read much any more, having developed a rather morbid obsession with the idea of there being a limited number of books to get through before I die(!). But when I do:

Good Omens - Pratchett/Gaimans. Top book.
Dorothy Sayers
possibly Agatha Christie (although all mine are still at my mum's)
Lucy M Boston - Green Knowe books

cmotdibbler: astounded and delighted that you also pick Veronica at the Wells. Just rescued my copy from my mum's (annoyingly seem to have lost book 1 of the series and they are now apparently impossible to get hold of). DD1's middle name is Veronica. My (Catholic) husband thinks it's after the saint but I know better

Actually the majority of my "comfort" reading seems to be stuff I read while growing up.

Now reading this thread properly (sorry, post-holiday brain). Fab to be reminded of so many well-loved old friends.

Just a plea to the Pratchett-haters: do give Good Omens a try if you ever decide to have another go at one. It's not Discworld - set in modern-day UK - and is absolutely packed with very funny literary and historical references so you can feel jolly clever while you're reading it too. honest.

All and any of the Georgette Heyers
Dorothy L Sayers, esp the Peter/Harriet ones.
Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising
Margaret Mahy - The Changeover.
Pratchett (Vimes / Witches for preference)
Phillip Pullman - His Dark Materials.
Jane Austen - Persuasion

God we are all the same person its true.

Issy you make a really interesting point about the similarity between the self contained worlds of SF/fantasy and the Regency romances. Have you (or anyone who likes both Georgette Heyer and Pratchett!) tried Lois McMaster Bujold? She writes SF / Fantasy, is very good and is a Heyer fan (has one book in her most popular series which is definitely very Heyer inspired).

Corblimey, taliac, that Wiki page is a lot to take in - haven't read Ms.Bujold but probably will now you've said - any recommendations as to which one to start with? Or should I just go with A Civil Campaign (the Heyer tribute)?

Depends if you prefer fantasy or SF.

I liked the Chalion trilogy for fantasy - I'd start with the Curse of Chalion.

The SF ones are best read chronologically, and the Heyer tribute is right at the end, so I'd start with the 2 Cordelia books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar (printed as an omnibus edition called Cordelia's Honor, ignore the really awful cover!). Cordelia is a very satisfying character, again somewhat in the Heyer mould.

Bujold is much darker than Heyer obviously, being SF, but is a very compelling read. Not least because I've read very little other SF that deals with strong/interesting women who are also mothers. And although most of the series after the first two books is about Cordelia's son, parenting is a really strong theme.

AbbeyA - Snap!
can now include anything by Joanne Harris too.

I think I'm going to go reread the Dark is Rising series. I've read it a lot over the years but not for a while now. Very English, but I really love it, esp because I've spent a lot of time in Cornwall where some of it is set.

Did anyone see the truly shocking film? I could only watch half of it before turning it off..

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couldn't bear to see the film of the Dark is Rising; as soon as i heard American accents in the trailer i knew it wasn't going to work for me - it is so very English, it couldn't possibly translate well. probably nsrrow minded of me but I hate seeing poor films of books I love - I can only just cope with te Harry Potter films as they have to cut so much out.

It was bad bad.

Ian McShane as Merriman.

Miss Greythorne wielding a sword against the dark (no wheelchair).

Will developing superpowers.

Utter arse.

am also a bit wary of The Golden Compass - have you seen that?

Nope, avoiding for the same reasons.

Saw the stage version though and enjoyed that.

Christiana - I bet that will be good..

thanks for advice taliac!

Anything by Mary Wesley.
Anything by Enid Blyton. (Preferably an older edition. I don't like the politically correct versions that have been reprinted)
Tess of the d'Urbevilles

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Good night Mister Tom - Michelle Magorian

Re-read some many times I had to buy another copy.

I do re-read others but thats generally because they are there on my bookshelf, and I haven't had time to go to the Library. Goodnight Mister Tom though is the one I turn to when I'm not feeling myself.