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

[thumbwitch]

I loved the Clan of the Cave Bear, and the Valley of the Horses but by the time I got to the Mammoth Hunters I was getting a bit peed off with them; and it got to a point that whenever there was a sex scene, Jean M. Auel might just as well have saved the paper and written "see page 57-61" (or whichever pages the first tediously long description of the sex act appeared on). Spoilt it a bit for me...

[ChukkyPig]

Blimey thumbwitch that's got me thinking! I wonder if anyone has any erotic fiction recommendations! Maybe I'll start a thread when I'm feeling brave (or pissed - so maybe later!!!).

[puffylovett]

ooh blueydragon, they're great aren't they !! I was over the moon when he brought out the Polgara / Belgarath books and I just wish he'd write some more... I don't like his later stuff who's you're favorite character...

[noonki]

His dark materials
Catcher in the Rye
1984
Imagica

[Frideswide]

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden for me too. I read it when I was 16, forgot about it completely, then picked it up again when I was in my late twenties. I've read it about once a year since then. I've just seen the TV adaptation with Diana Rigg, which was very 1970s, and not too bad, but not a patch on the book, which is stunningly good.

[LittleMissMolly]

The Womens Room by Marylin French

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Pride and Prejudice (not the other Austins though)

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey are my main ones though ... sometimes the only thing that will do is to escape to Pern! I've discovered that these are a useful way to keep an eye on my depression ... if I crave Pern and nothing else then it's time I adjusted my meds LOL

[southeastastra]

yellow wallpaper, red room, lots of classic ghost stories

[tryingtoleave]

All Austen, especially Mansfield Park for some reason.

Colette's Claudine series.

Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.

Willa Cather's pioneer books.

Lots of children's books (so glad I'm not alone!). I hate hate hate the Chalet school though - Joey Bettany has to be the most annoying heroine ever. Antonia Forest is my favourite for school stories. I read her books every 6 months or so.

[liath]

Thumbwitch, I agree about the dreadful sex scenes in the Clan of the Cave Bear books! The worst I've ever read and do you rememebr the bit where she had the mammoths shagging too? OMG!!!!!!!! Did she research that one by careful studies of elephant mating .

[eemie]

Books I have read so often I practically know them by heart but still come back to again and again:-

All of Mary Renault, especially the Alexander books and The Charioteer and The Last of the Wine;

The Once and Future King, TH White;

Jane Austen especially P&P, S&S, Persuasion;

All of CS Lewis;

The Day of the Triffids, Chocky, The Chrysalids (John Wyndham);

The Daughter of Time (Josephine Tey);

Georgette Heyer for when I'm ill.

The Narnia chronicles, especially TLTWATW, Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader - what a joy to read them all to dd!

Oooooh - must go quick and read them all again.

Also - The Shipping News (Annie Proulx);
The Time Traveller's Wife;
Michelle Paver - A Place in the Hills, Without Charity, And all of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.

[JammyQueenOfTheSewers]

Dancing to the Pipers by Kate Fenton
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Insomnia by Stephen King
bag of Bones by Stephen King

[AnnVan]

CMOT - yes Veronica at the wells, I've been trying for years to get copies of these books to no avail.

A lot of mine are ones that I fell in love with as a child, and still reread regularly - Goodnight Mr Tom, Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, The Chronicles OF Narnia, A little princess (Francis Hodgson Burnett)
Also Jane Eyre, Pride & Predudice, Terry PRatchett is my favourite author ever, gutted at Alzheimer's news

[BeckyBendyLegs]

Mine are childhood things as well:
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
What Katie Did
Little Women

Whenever I am really, really ill or depressed I like to read Enid Blyton books! Sad I know but I devoured them as a kid.

[Mayakovskyandme]

Any PG Wodehouse
Diary Of A Nobody
Three Men In A Boat
Calvin and Hobbes
Trollope
Dorothy L. Sayers
Monica Dickens

[AnnVan]

Becky - I also have What Katie did. An I also read Enid Blyton when ill. I think cos when I had chicken pox or flu when I was young my mum would buy me Enid BLyton books.

[MaryAnnSingleton]

Tales of the City,of course

[RaggedRobin]

jitterbug perfume by tom robbins
any kurt vonnegut
any robert anton wilson

[zaphod]

The Narnia books
LHOP books
Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm and Sequel by Enid Blyton
Harry Potter books
I know there are some grown up books but can't think of any at the moment.

[LANDGIRL71]

The Chamomile Lawn by Mary Wesley - I always want to start reading it again as soon as I finish.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens, always start reading this at the beginning of December to get me in the mood

[Slickbird]

How Not to be a Perfect Mother, by Libby Purves - Simply the only book on motherhood I personally think you need!! So sensible, funny and down to earth. It has been my bible for nearly 8 years!! Even if it is a little out of date!

Any of the 'Broons' books. But you might have to be Scottish to understand that one!

[JayneF]

Silas Marner -George Eliot

[susiecutiebananas]

COld COmfort Farm,
The great Gatsby
My Family and Other Animals - Gerrald Durrel
The wind in the willows - I know, not adult fiction but i've read that book more times than I cold count!
To Kill a mockingbird
A Room with a view

THere are a few more,but can't recall of the top of my head at this hour!

[MaryAnnSingleton]

oh yes to Cold Comfort Farm..

[BeckyBendyLegs]

Cold Comfort Farm is lovely. I might have to rea-read that one next time I have flu...Actually what am I talking about? When I have flu I don't get to lie in bed reading I have to look after children dossed up to my eyeballs on lemsip!!! I'm more likely to spend my time reading Thomas the TE books.

How Not to be a Perfect Mother by Libby Purves is definitely the best motherhood book - made me laugh so much.

[mymblemummy]

George and Weedon Grossmith: Diary of a Nobody

Keith Waterhouse: Mrs Pooter's Diary

Jerome K Jerome: Three Men in a Boat
Three Men on a Bummel

EF Benson: Queen Lucia
Lucia in London
Miss Mapp
Mapp and Lucia
Trouble for Lucia
Lucia's Progress
Paying Guests
Secret Lives

Tom Holt: Lucia Triumphant
Lucia in Wartime

Betty MacDonald: Onions in the Stew
Anyone Can Do Anything
The Egg and I

Ruth McKenney: My Sister Eileen
Far, Far from Home

Mrs Gaskell: Cranford

Flora Thompson: Lark Rise to Candleford.

All very hot water bottle sort of books to me.
I'm very pleased to see some more Betty MacDonald enthusiasts. I came across a tatty paperback of Onions in the Stew when I was a child and I thought it was so funny. I've never met anyone who had even heard of her before, so I was amazed to heard Lynne Truss talking about her on Radio 4 fairly recently.