While She Knits... Cozy Edition

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

 What is your comfort book?

I think it'll be very interesting to hear everyone's curl-up-with-em favorites. Of course, we're mostly going to be interested by books OTHER than The Thief, etc, but if you want to add in your favorite one to re-read and why they're good for comfort, go ahead.

Do you pick up certain books when you're blue? Procrastinating? Stuck for ideas on a project?


I've been aiming to get this up biweekly, let me know if you really are for an every-week discussion. I'm sorry if I've caused any lost momentum, but I think maybe this question will provoke a bit of discussion. ~.~

Comments

[9mil.livejournal.com]

Beyond QOA (if there really is a beyond) I've always loved loved loved Ellen Raskin's The Westing House. It's been years since I was in the correct age group to read it, but no matter what, if I need a book and I'm being poor, I can grab The Westing House and read it and still be surprised.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

(Westing Game, I think you mean.)

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Too many to name! But let us just mention those whose covers have been completely worn off: Pride and Prejudice. Harriet the Spy. All my Joan Aiken books. All my Elizabeth Enright books. Time at the Top and All in Good Time by Edward Ormondroyd. The Little Bookroom (stories) by Eleanor Farjeon. The Genie of Sutton Place by George Selden. Jack Holborn by Leon Garfield. Leave it to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse. The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit.

Of course, some of my comfort books had better bindings to begin with, but I think we'll leave it there for now.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Given the degree of comfort-fave overlap, I think I'd better check out the E. Ormondroyd and George Selden pretty quickly!

I'd add Persuasion along with P&P, and Anne of the Island, and Elizabeth Pope's The Perilous Gard. Oh, and Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, yes, Elizabeth Enright! I'm reading Gone-Away Lake to a fifth grade class right now. (Well, not *right* now. *Right* now I'm typing this. But you get the idea). And I love the Melendy books.

Also love Time at the Top and All in Good Time.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. It was the only book I carried out of the house from the fire. In hindsight, this was probably a bad idea, but oh well.

Anyway, I just reread the first part again and liked it better than during all my previous rereadings. Mel is really brave and for some reason more stuff just clicked this time and she didn't seem as silly or ill-informed.

[happydappydrunk.livejournal.com]

You're the first person I've found who has read that book. Strangely enough, I picked up my copy in an English bookshop in Budapest. :)

[loquaciousquark.livejournal.com]

Seconding Pride and Prejudice. I have so many stains on the cover I can't remember where they all came from.

Agatha Christie is another one I love. I like to read Hercule Poirot every now and then to remind myself that even if I'm having a bad day, at least I don't suffer from strychnine poisoning. ;)

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

My mom LOVES Agatha Christie, and she's had me reading them since I was little so those are definitely comfort books for me :)

[avian-xj.livejournal.com]

Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown & The Blue Sword were the first fantasy books I ever read. I grabbed them off the shelf (or maybe my mom did) in 1st or 2nd grade and fell in love with them. For some reason, I still haven't bought these. I just like to go sit in the library and read the old, falling apart copies of them :)

[alpestars.livejournal.com]

I love "The Blue Sword"! The prequel was written after it, I think, but I didn't like that as much.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Um...Gone with the Wind, whenever I'm looking for romance. The Once and Future King--specifically "The Ill-Made Knight," just whenever I'm...I dunno. Any number of Star Wars books (the ones by Timothy Zahn especially, but also any of the Mike Stackpoole X-Wing novels) when I just need something to read.

I dunno. I usually end up picking up the books because I'm looking for a quote, and then I just get sucked into rereading them. I have little to no time to read for pleasure right now, and my dorm room is distinctly lacking in little corner to curl up and read in, which is sad.

I need to read. Luckily, I have an 8 hour car ride coming up on Sunday; I will spend some of it sleeping, but I think I'll bring along Looking for Alaska and Fellowship of the Ring to distract me from all the homework I have to read too. >.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Any number of Star Wars books (the ones by Timothy Zahn especially, but also any of the Mike Stackpoole X-Wing novels) when I just need something to read.

I was just thinking of these today! Squeeee! :D

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

My two comfort books (apart from QoA and KoA) are Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones and, oddly and more repeatedly lately, Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I turn to the former because I absolutely love the characters and because the story is so great (Magids! Alternate universes! Hilarity and danger at a scifi con!) and, to my mind, completely cinematic. I think I turn to the latter because of the main character's completely snarky, fatalistic, pugnacious voice. Also, for some inexplicable reason McKinley has captured perfectly what it's like to be a restaurant baker. How she knows this I'll never know.

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Ooh, a Diana Wynne Jones book I hadn't heard of! Thank you so much.

Involving a sci-fi/f con? MUST HAVE)

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I have a few--usually the endings of any book I love, as well.
Little Women, the whole thing. (and Rose in Bloom, sequel to Seven Cousins)
Blue Castle
Pride and Prejudice
The Hobbit! My first fantasy on the list...
The Blue Sword--yes, blue was my favorite color, why do you ask?

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

(Eight Cousins, you mean).
Sorry, I am really in correcting-people mode today. Must be my deep need to procrastinate on rainy days.

[crazyviolin.livejournal.com]

It always has to be something light and fluffy so:

-The Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella
-The Book of General Ignorance
-Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
-Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

If you like fantasy, I can suggest "Enchanted, Inc" and sequels for light and fluffy reading.

I read them the first time round as procrastination and comfort books.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Just about any Diana Wynne Jones book seems to work very well. The Narnia books are wonderful for comfort reading, so's 'Jane Eyre', and any Jane Austen novel (apart from 'Emma').

For some reason, I like to read the Sherlock Holmes books when I'm procrastinating or a little miserable - they're great for taking your mind off things.

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

I object on behalf of my namesake! (OK, not really my namesake as we aren't named after each other). Seriously, though, you don't like Emma but you do like Mansfield park?!

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

The Little House books.
And Catherine Woolley's books, especially the Ginnie ones.
And Curious George. And Bread and Jam for Frances and the other books about Frances. And Waggles and the Dog Catcher. And Caroline and Her Kettle Named Maud. And Jenny Lind and Her Listening Cat. And The Lady With the Lamp. And Enid Blyton's Famous Five and St. Clare's and Malory Towers. And Scott Corbett's Trick books. And Magic Elizabeth. And The Color Kittens. And The Animals' Merry Christmas. And Snow, by Roy McKie, and Summer by Alice Low. The King's Wish and The Big Jump by Benjamin Elkin. The Nancy Drews and the Trixie Beldens. The Boxcar Children (only the original 17).

Manifestly, books are very comforting to me.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Wildcat would vote for the Frances books for comfort reading! When she's feeling bad, she retreats to books with pictures. The Frances ones are her favorites.

The Big Jump!!!!! I loved that. Wildcat's read it at my mother's house -- it's one of those books I never see around any more in stores, but it was so good!

[traboule.livejournal.com]

I read McKinley and Elizabeth Marie Pope for comfort too! Amazing how many people do.

And always, always Daddy Long-Legs and especially Dear Enemy. Those are just to warmest, fuzziest, sweetest books. Ever.

(I have also been known to read the "good" - which is to say emotionally-harrowing - parts of Checkmate repeatedly when I can't find any cocoa powder, but I think I'm probably the only person who would do that).

[(Anonymous)]

I sat on the floor of the library for two hours (it was a cold, hard, marble floor and I realized this only after I tried to get UP after two hours) reading bits of Checkmate...I like your description "emotionally harrowing"--it suits marvelously.

More comfort books: Crown Duel, The Theif Lord, The Perilous Guard, The Sherwood Ring (if you like The Perilous Guard and have not read The Sherwood Ring, you really should)...

~Feir Dearig

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Fifty five comments already. Gosh, we're crazy people. I don't have time to read through them all.... bleargh to homework.

Comfort books? Ella Enchanted, the Blue Sword... The Goose Girl qualifies, I think... Lord of the Rings... Those are the main ones, I think.

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

I still have to read Goose Girl! I've been putting it off until I can find River Secrets, because once I start the Books of Bayern, I won't want to stop.

[shadowgirlvg.livejournal.com]

I love Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue. It's a beautiful collection of fairy tales retold with a more personal perspective. The stories are all moving and thought-provoking and I can't get enough of re-reading them.

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmmm. A lot by Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle, The Crown of Dalemark, all of the Chrestomanci books except for The Magicians of Caprona and Witch Week (I like Christopher as more than just a cameo, kthx). Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty. Garth Nix's Sabriel. Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza books. Meg Cabot's The Mediator. Ursula K. le Guin's The Telling. Tamora Pierce: Lioness Rampant, Emperor Mage, Squire, Terrier.

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

I only have one comfort book, really. While I'll reread all my Terry Pratchetts with as much speed and joy as some can eat a German chocolate cake, and I turned to The Dresden Files to cleanse my psyche after suffering through The Golden Compass, there is only one book I go when I need a metaphorical hug: The Thief.

And yes I know we're supposed to talk about the series, but I can't help it if that's my only real comfort book. ^_^ There are many, many wonderful books out there, but The Thief is the only one that feels like it was written just for me. It's my soulmate book. ^_^

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Awwwww...that's how I feel about Queen of Attolia. Except I only read it when I'm reading it all the way through (aside from looking for quotes). But it really is my soulmate book. (I think sometimes that all of my female characters are simply striving to be Attolia. ^_^)

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Completely unrelated to the question at hand: Has anybody read Downright Dencey, by Caroline Dale Snedeker? Excellent book!

[filkferengi]

It's wonderful, along with lots of her novels set in ancient times & places.

[faerie-music.livejournal.com]

In my dorm room, right over my computer, I have a shelf of books that I have with me for comfort, for reference, because I cannot bear to be without them. Right now, that shelf contains

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
a pocket-sized edition of most of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poems
The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope
Arcadia, Tom Stoppard
The Player's Boy, Antonia Forest
The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner (I've lent the others to people, or they'd be there too)

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARCADIA.

Shall we fangirl together?

*fangirls*

I had to read it last semester for my Intro to Theatre class. As I was reading it, I thought it seemed familiar. And then it got to the turtle and I went "WAIT, I've read this before! But...how? Why? What the crap? Why did I read this?"

So I did some thinking, and concluded that I must've read it around when I was thirteen, in eighth grade. I think it was in an anthology in a teacher's classroom, or something. This still does not explain how I came by it, or why I read it. And it disturbs me that I cannot remember the circumstances under which I first experienced (and was confused the heck out of my mind) Tom Stoppard.

But I LOVE Stoppard in general, and Aracdia in particular. XD

[ivorysilk]

Offhand, and in addition to the above, I like the Fionavar Tapestry by G.G. Kay, when I want to lose myself in something, and also because I love the language of it. Watership Down is another favourite, but many of the books mentioned above are comfortfic for me as well.

[estarria.livejournal.com]

*is also a Watership Down fan*

My favorite part is Cowslip's warren...that's always the section I go back to. I know it's not the happiest part, but it's what got me hooked on the book the first time I read it.

[abhyastamita.livejournal.com]

Lord of the Rings, any book by Elizabeth Peters or Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm a long way from home now and the only one of these I've brought with me is the Fellowship of the Rings, and that's in French, which makes it somewhat less comforting. I guess the Joy of Cooking too, which I did bring, in a completely different way. You get comfort food out of it in addition to comfort reading.

[savvywriter.livejournal.com]

When I'm feeling down, I read Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes Comics...Of course, some might protest that that isn't actual reading.