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]

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.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

(Westing Game, I think you mean.)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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. >.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

The Selden is maybe a wee bit dated -- very 1970s, but hey, that was my childhood. But it still makes me laugh my head off every time I reread. I second all of yours, too, with the exception of the Willis, which I haven't read.

[9mil.livejournal.com]

I'll always confuse them. But yes, Westing Game I do mean, and I love it.

[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.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

I can handle dated, no problem. That sounds great.

The Connie Willis is wonderful! Connie Willis can do really funny and heartbreaking, and this is one of the funny ones - although with poignant scenes, like the ones in the bombed-out Coventry cathedral. But mostly funny. Think Jerome K. Jerome and Wodehouse-style comedy, a small dash of Dorothy Sayers, and time travel, written by a woman who really knows history. And you'll meet the real Lady Schrapnell, who gives new meaning to 'formidable'.

[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?

[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]

Love this one too!
I reread it all the time.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I love Deep Secret. One of my favorite DWJ books. Rowana and I were once trying to decide whether there were any fictional characters we'd be willing to be married to (you know, REALLY, after thinking it through), and my choice was Rupert.

[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

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Deep Secret is fantastic! I agree, utterly cinematic. Rupert is a wonderful main character, almost the last sort of person you'd expect to be a hero in a fanatasy book.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on Rupert, but I think I'd prefer Tom Lynn, just ever so slightly. Mordian from Hexwood wouldn't be too bad either.

[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]

They are both utterly fantastic choices :) As are heaps of the ones people are picking!

I actually don't like re-reading favourite books too often, and I'll generally save re-reads of the happier of my favourites for when I'm down. Eg To say nothing of the dog by Connie Willis, A civil campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, Catalogue of the universe by Margaret Mahy, um (so hard without my books in front of me!) lots of LM Montgomery, oh and romances like Eva Ibottson's and Jennifer Crusie's. And MWT of course.

I know I'll keep thinking of more :)

[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?!