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[mrissa]

What are your favorite comfort reads? Which books do you reach for when you're sad or harried or upset? And why? Or don't you read that way, and what do you do instead?

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

My "comfort reads" tend to drift over time. Doc Smith has been on the list for a long time. Heinlein (not late-period). The Mote In God's Eye. A Civil Campaign. Busman's Honeymoon. Various mainstream books by W.E.B. Griffin have been coming up fairly often in the last decade. The Mysterious Island, and The Wind in the Willows.

I think Nero Wolfe is working up to that status. There was a brief period when Anthony Price's books qualified, and they may again. The Modesty Blaise books are also around the fringes a lot.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

If you're just in a position for one Smith book, what's your choice? I might use them for comfort reading, but I can't quite figure out how to go at them without reading a whole series. Anyway we're without any of the Skylarks currently, sadly. Those should probably go on the bookstore list.

It's interesting to see which Bujolds people are picking. My own preference tends to Komarr, The Vor Game, and Barrayar, usually in that order. But I reread the whole series every six months or so anyway.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I can read pretty much any Smith book by itself at this point without any confusion. I tend to pick First Lensman or Skylark Duquesne or Subspace Explorers most, I think.

Rereading an entire Smith series is equivalent to about one volume in a lot of modern series, after all.

I've recently acquired a 2nd edition hardcover of The Skylark of Space, which is interesting because it has a different text from all the paperback editions. Dunno if there's going to be a detailed booklog article some day or not; I wish I had both in ASCII. (I'd really need the magazine text too for that, anyway; it's supposed to be roughly the same as the early hardcover editions, but I'd need to check.)

ACC is the only Bujold that I've really bonded to that way. The others I merely like very much, so far.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

For comfort reading, I tend to stick to Shards of Honor, Barrayar, Memory, the later bits of Komarr, and selected portions of A Civil Campaign. (I don't think I'll be able to re-read the dinner scene in this lifetime.) That's Bujold only, of course.

Other comfort books include To Say Nothing of the Dog (Willis), Voice of the Hurricane (Williams), Maireleon the Magician, & Magician's Ward (Wrede), the Prydain series (Alexander), and the Bagthorpe Saga (Cresswell).

I used to re-read Ender's Game at the drop of a hat, but while OSC's early work and short fiction were probably the greatest formative influence on my writing, I don't tend to go back to read his books very often these days.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I still owe you hugs for reminding me of the name of the Bagthorpe Saga. Because going up to people and saying, "Oh, come on, what's it called? It's British! And funny! And the covers were mostly black and white in the editions I read," is not helpful.

I prefer Westmark to Prydain both in general and for comfort reading. Hmm. Which says some fairly violent things about my comfort levels, I think. Blood and politics, rah!

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

I think the only reason I don't like Westmark more was because I read Prydain first, and have a deep and abiding attachment to it that I don't have to Westmark.

OTOH, I didn't steal bits from Prydain to use in Vicious, while The Kestrel was a pretty important source.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

On second thought, I retract my previous comments about not stealing from Prydain; the Malefor/Constance relationship was half Taran/Eilonwy.