Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

Let's see. Off the top of my head: Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy, or Crystal Singer (but not necessarily the other two in that series), Robert Heinlein Time Enough For Love (selected sections), Jennifer Cruise Crazy For You, any of the first three Harry Potter books, Betsy's Wedding or any of the Betsy-Tacy books, Jane of Lantern Hill or certain other books by L.M. Montgomery, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Also selected LIW books, depending on my mood.

If there's a theme there, it's that my "comfort books" tend to be mostly children's lit. I find them comforting and they're quick reads.

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zellandyne.livejournal.com

I'm reading Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy right now as comfort books. Bujold. McKinley's Blue Sword.

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Gillian Bradshaw: Beacon at Alexandria; lately added Wolf Hunt to the roster
Sherwood Smith: Crown Duel (and Court Duel too, back when there were 2 books)
Robin McKinley: The Blue Sword; Beauty; The Hero and the Crown; Rose Daughter; and depending on the kind of comfort I'm seeking, sometimes Deerskin.
Cynthia Voigt: Jackaroo. I reread the rest of the series fairly often, but they aren't comfort books.
Jane Austen: Persuasion
Anne McCaffrey: The Mark of Merlin

I found fairly recently that some old comfort reads just don't do it anymore, like most of the rest of Anne McCaffrey... and plenty of other things I'm sort of ashamed to admit to. :)

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and ugh, italics gone horribly awry there, sorry. but you get the point. :)

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Never be ashamed to admit to books! Even bad books have their purpose.

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That's funny: I took The Secret Country and Brothers in Arms when we went to see Grandma Lyzenga in hospice. I don't want to bring The Hidden Land, because it's a short series, and I don't want to associate it with death and dying entirely. But another Bujold might do.

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I find them comforting, too, but I have much less of a sense of how many of them to pack.

I don't own the Betsy-Tacy books yet, and the library will not stock Betsy and the Great World or Betsy's Wedding at our branch. I don't know why. I'm going to have to request them one of these days, because enough is enough. I had to write my article on Maud Hart Lovelace without rereading them. Miff.

My Oz books are somewhere in the recesses of my parents' basement along with my E. Nesbits and The Arm of the Starfish and who knows what else. Last times we were in town we had other things to do than dig through for them, because the boxes that were in the obvious places are already here. So I'm not sure when we'll get at them. I want them, though.

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buymeaclue.livejournal.com

The next Horatio Hornblower. I've only read the first few because I squirrel them away for when I need them most.

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palinade.livejournal.com

I don't usually read when I'm harried or upset, but I do return to these books periodically for "refreshment".

The Last Unicorn, The Earthsea Trilogy (not including the last couple of books because they are sort of addendums for me), The Prydain Chronicles and Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (read for the beautiful poetic prose).

When I'm particularly upset or harried, I think I put on loud music, sometimes loud metal-ish stuff like Soundgarden, Guns n' Roses, Metallica and clean or do yardwork. Physical labor for me is soothing because my mind is allowed to rest while the body is doing all the work--scrubbing, polishing, weeding, sweeping, folding, whatever.

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gaaneden.livejournal.com

I usually grab one Heinlein, one Gaiman and one De Lint. Usually stories that involve determination and hope.

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mechaieh.livejournal.com

Bill Richardson's Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast series.
Theatre/book reviews - the snarkier the better.
Poetry. Such as Jane Hirshfield's "The Heart's Counting Knows Only One":

In Sung China,
two monks friends for sixty years
watched the geese pass.
Where are they going?
one tested the other, who couldn't say.

That moment's silence continues.

No one will study their friendship
in the koan-books of insight.
No one will remember their names.

I think of them sometimes,
standing, perplexed by sadness,
goose-down sewn into their quilted autumn robes.

Almost swallowed by the vastness of the mountains,
but not yet.

As the barely audible
geese are not yet swallowed;
as even we, my love, will not entirely be lost.

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I just finished reading all of the Oz books. (Well, the 14 Baum wrote, that is. As well as Queen Zixi of Ix, which was delightful.) I'd only read the first one as a child, but I have a distinct memory of being irritated the first time I saw the movie because Dorothy was supposed to have *silver* shoes, darn it! I also didn't read the Betsy-Tacy books as a child, although I can't imagine why on earth not, because they're just the sort of thing I would have liked.

I'm seriously lusting after that newish printing of Oz books, the Books of Wonder one with the gorgeous original covers and illustrations, but as they're $25 each I can't imagine I'll be getting them anytime soon. A girl can dream...

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No, sorry, really. Mercedes Lackey is nothing for me to be proud of. :) Because, you see, I didn't think they were bad. And that's just lack of judgment. And hence, shame.

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Oh, I second that Ivory nomination. But I reread those for fun, not for comfort.

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I don't read for comfort. K does.

And honestly, I have no idea what I do instead.

B

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mmerriam.livejournal.com

Roger Zelazney's Lord of Light, Steven Brust's To Reign In Hell, any Charles de Lint short story collection, and anything by Terry Pratchett

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See, I read Mercedes Lackeys when I was a kid and didn't think they were bad, and I wouldn't say I'm proud of it, but I'm not ashamed, either. They were the right books at the time, and I think I learned from them.

Timprov has a theory that it's easier to learn from someone who is near your own level of writing than from someone a million miles better than you (or worse, but no one usually makes that claim). So I think I first learned about how to construct a plot, characters, etc., and then learned how not to, from some Mercedes Lackey books.

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I'm currently reading a book she wrote under her other name...does that count?

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That's funny, because for me, physical labor or exercise that doesn't engage my brain lets said brain run around and around in circles. When I'm in a good mood, this is a good thing (story ideas/development, etc.). When I'm in a bad mood, it's best to make sure someone is around to talk to while I'm working out or working on house/yard chores, because otherwise I will brood.

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Tattered old Heinlein juvies are my top choice, followed by any book I have loved immoderately and well. "The Beginning Place," "I See By My Outfit," um.... there must be a few others. Oh, "Dreaming Jewels."

K. [though I second the vote for Jenny Cruisie. If you need something new, go there]

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Well... that's fair. But I was attempting to adapt Arrows of the Queen to the stage at one point.

I mean, I'm knee-deep in shame here. :)

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City of Diamond? That counts, but be prepared... she's no plans to ever write City of Opal. You may find that frustrating.

She has a livejournal, btw:

tightropegirl, wherein she muchly discusses her experiences as a television writer in Hollywood.

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Oh, and Timprov's right. It's much easier to learn what not to do from seeing someone else blunder into your same mistakes, than to learn what to do by reading the good stuff.

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Is that the LeGuin Beginning Place? Because I also loved that immoderately. Haven't got my own copy yet, though, and haven't run into anyone else who had the same reaction to it as I did.

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dichroic.livejournal.com

Sayers, Heinlein, L.M. Montgomery .... I feel like just a member of the crowd here among your readers, which is a very odd feeling given that particular grouping.

Also Alcott (when I need comfort I don't mind being preached at, if it's a message I'm used to), the Narnia books (ditto), Harry Potter, Anne Fadiman (Ex Libris - nonfiction about books and absolutely wonderful) and In Style or shelter magazines.

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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.

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buymeaclue.livejournal.com

Timprov has a theory that it's easier to learn from someone who is near your own level of writing than from someone a million miles better than you (or worse, but no one usually makes that claim).

Oh, yes! That's a good theory. I think you probably learn a lot from reading those far ahead of you, but it's a different sort of learning, where the good stuff sneaks into your brain and maybe later you'll be able to process it. Whereas the near-own-level sorts you can maybe consciously figure out what they're doing and how and why.

Lackey books are a fuzzy memory for me. A pleasant fuzzy memory, though.

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zunger.livejournal.com

Hmm... I was going to start off a list with Heinlein or Terry Moore or some such and drift from there, but I realized that by now, I've reread so many of my books so many times that more or less any of them are good as "comfort reads." Fraser's Flashman books, Eco, Leonard Cohen's poetry, a very well-worn copy of the Odyssey, various books on Late Antique and Medieval history, and more often lately, some well-loved physics text, like Peskin & Schroeder or Green, Schwarz & Witten...

Okay, I have wierd comfort reading habits, I realize this. I think that lately my habit has just been that any sort of reading at all is comforting, so any book that happens to be too close gets to be the next target.

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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.

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I'm pretty sure (although I haven't run downstairs to check) that Phule's Company is by Robert Asprin.

--Mark

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baronlaw.livejournal.com

You are absolutely correct sir. My mistake. :)

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Yes, LeGuin. Such an odd, evocative story. "I See" is Peter Beagle's road trip story and "Jewels" is a love story by Sturgeon.

Beagle, Sturgeon, Tom (not Harold) Robbins, Brautigan are those whose use of words I admire most.

K. [though "Men, Martians, and Machines" by Eric Frank Russel is another comfort book I have read endlessly]

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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.

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dd-b.livejournal.com

That EFR book is one of the ones I've had longest; I think I owned it when I owned fewer than a dozen books, but maybe there's been more attrition of the older books than I remember. I had it with me in Switzerland in 1967, I'm pretty sure. And have read it an amazing number of times, though not recently. I think it was a comfort book for a while, before I'd heard the term.

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So when I say, "...assuming Armstrong could hold his six" you know exactly the scene I mean?

K.

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It's funny, but true. Sayers, Heinlein, and L.M. Montgomery (not even to mention Alcott and C.S.Lewis and Rowling!) are very very different writers, and yet I like *all* of them, and it looks like I'm not alone there. It's a nice warm fuzzy feeling when someone else likes the same subset of books that you do. :)

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palinade.livejournal.com

My brain tends to fold down and back; hind brain or lizard brain steps forward. Dig, scrub, move, shove. The mind, for some odd reason, just goes somewhere else.

I also forgot to add the myriad graphic novel series I dig out, too. Sandman, The Watchmen, Hellblazer, Bone, and lots of manga. The illustrations and stories are pretty soothing to me.

My brain runs in circles mostly at the end of the day and I've developed insomnia--I have to work at it to get to sleep unless I'm physically exhausted; meditation works on those occassions.

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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.

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