Comfort Books

[Elsie]

Recently I've seen a lot of discussion on books and perhaps they're just something that was buried awhile ago and someone simply resurfaced them but... well I want to know what people read for comfort when they're bored, when they're sad, when you don't have enough money to buy a new book, or just simply can't find a darn thing to read period that seems appealing.

So in answer to my own question(s), the books that I read when nothing else looks good...

Pride and Prejudice (because Mr. Darcy was one of my first loves)
Demon in my View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (woot! they've redone the cover)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

There are other books I grab when I want to relive some good times (in my mind) but those are my favorites.

Feel free to just say one book or a whole list. Everyone needs a well stocked library.

[Cynically Yours]

Good Omens and The Princesss Bride are definately some that i just keep reading over and over again lol. I agree that even if "the good parts" idea isn't real i still love to read it.

[Nathan]

It may seem kind of odd, but mine aren't really "comforting" at all...I just like to read them over and over.

Fight Club and Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Erica]

Joker by Ranulfo-one of the best books ever (in my opinion) but no one has ever read it... tis sad.
Looking for Alaska - not because its a nerdfighters site but because it still makes me cry every time i read it.
Paper Towns - maybe this shouldn't be on the list cause I've only read it once but I have a feeling that it will definitely end up on the list.

[EBrenry]

Anything by Robert Fulghum:
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It
Uh-Oh
Maybe (Maybe Not)
From Beginning to End: The Rituals of our Lives
-OR-
Illusions by Richard Bach
- When I was in high school and I asked my folks, "Got anything interesting I can read?" and my mom pulled her copy off our bookshelves.

From the back cover of Illusions:
Here is
a test to find
whether your mission on earth
is finished:
If you're alive,
it isn't.

That got my attention.

[iSayiSaid]

*The Outsiders- A quick read, to be done with in about two hours. I first read it when I was ten or so, just something I like to go back to. Childhood.

*Harry Potter- What? I have all of them, and I just love rereading them! Its like I have to. I still haven't worked up the courage to reread the last one yet though. :/

It could really be anything. When I am really, really sad I will read children's books. No, not classic children's tales like Peter Pan, I mean books to be read by small children them selves, the ones with bright colors that are no more than ten pages long.
:)

[Richard (T.A.F.K.A.T)]

Hmm good thread.

The series i like to fall back on are book i read when i was a lot younger, not necessarily the best books ever written but for the nostalgic comfort values to them -

David Eddings series, Belgariad or the Sparhawk books, either sets of series.

Ramond E Feist, Magician series.

And yes to some extent Harry Potter books as well.

As you can see, lots of fantasy novels...

Escapism FTW!! :)

[Broken Girl Soldier]

no
TRUCKLE ftw!

[Cynically Yours]

Well The Tortall series by Tamora Pierce is just something I keep reading for some odd reason. I think its because they are easy to read and are brain candy and play into the every little girl wants a prince facination.

I also am always reader Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, you always learn something new from those... unless you have memorized them all which i am sure someone somewhere has...

[Broken Girl Soldier]

Comfort is a point of view.
Some are comforted by the pain of others-in that it diminishes their own hurt.
Makes it seem like my own pain is nothing compared with what could be.

Phantom by Susan Kay---I've lost count as to how many times I've read this
and it never fails to make me cry and cry.

Through the Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King---this was my very first SK, I was just a baby when I read it. It's still so freakin magical.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith---from beginning to end, this book just dances with you. I literally wore my copy out to nothing. Now I have a super old hardcover edition.

Rose Madder by Stephen King---because sometimes the bad guy gets it really bad, in the end. This book taught me how to roar. I read it when I need to remember.

Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor---the stuff of my forefathers.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler by E.L Konigsburg----man oh man, I wanted to run away when i was little...

[Arnaud]

The Darren Shan series. Kind of childish, but still good. WhenI started reading I even liked it more than Harry Potter.

[Kirsten]

When I'm not sure what I want to read or re-read as the case may be I usually go back to The Chronicles of Narnia or just about anything by Anne McCaffery, Anne Bishop or Mercedes Lackey. Narnia was the first series ever that I remember absolutely loving (my dad bought it for me when I was 4 or 5). McCaffery, Bishop and Lackey were the authors whose books really got me "into" the scifi/fantasy genre back in 7th/8th grade so there's a certain amount of nostalgia attached to them.

Also, when I'm sad--like really, really sad--I always go back and read A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis. It's heartbreakingly wonderful and never fails to make me feel better.

[broelle]

I'm just a lame-o and I go back and read my favorite parts out of various books of the Twiligh series. ohhh well