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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Comfort reading

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11:18 / 09.07.02

i like to read books tat i've read a million times before when i am feeling gross.
my favourites are "girl" by blake nelson, which reads just like a journal. and also "america the beautiful" by moon unit zappa and all the harry potter books. also "Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band" by enrico brizzi. they're all cool reads that i've read a million times before and comfort me because they're like a part of me.

duncan, yeah! calvin and hobbes fucking rock.

The Apple-Picker

23:16 / 18.08.02

My comfort reading is Nancy Drew mysteries. Or The Golden Key by George MacDonald, which I've read countless times (I say countless, because I never remembered to count).

07:28 / 19.08.02

Charles de Lint is always guaranteed to bring on a case of the warm and fuzzies. Usually Spiritwalk & Someplace to be flying. But I just picked up a copy his latest one - The Onion Girl, and that's heading straight for my comfort pile!
Also Diana Wynne Jones & most anthologies of fantasy fiction - from authors collections to the Years Best books. (I've turned into something of short fic. freak recently so comfort reading also tends to mean going through piles of old fiction mags and wallowing in nostalgia.)

11:00 / 19.08.02

I have a couple of books which, whenever I pick them up again stick to my hands like glue - a bit of sci-fi and fantasy, which is I suppose good for escapism. My faves are The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, wonderful tale of a neophyte wizard coming of age that beats Harry Potter's wimpy bespectacled ass round the block, anything by Wlliam Gibson, just completed my 99th reading of Neuromancer and felt like i could finally follow the plot, and Tik Tok by John Sladek, which is just funny as fuck. i suppose I could include nerding out on a mass of comics comfort reading ep. that big pile of 2000ADs that lurks in my mum's attic.

15:03 / 19.08.02

I'm taking "comfort reading" as reading something that makes you feel better when you are a mess.
That would be "A Ilustre Casa de Ramires" by Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz. It's about the last descendant of a illustrious clan, older than the kings of Portugal, now waning away in the midst of the XIX century. Gonçalo (the protagonist) is shy, coward, vain, and the might of his ancestor's accomplishments follows him and tortures him all the time.
But then the end of the book turns out to be one of the most uplifting, optimistic "everything will end just fine" endings, and that, coming from a dry, sarcastic writer from the Naturalistic movement, is really... cute, damn it.
When I read that book I always finish thinking "people can change, dammit. They can find new things in themselves, things they didn't know they were capable of..."
I'll stop now before I get all teary-eyed.

Foust is SO authentic

15:57 / 19.08.02

Robert Sawyer's Calculating God. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Jurassic Park, too. Mostly, nice light sci-fi. I read a random scene, and feel much better.

at the scarwash

23:25 / 19.08.02

Potato chip and donut literature for me is probably the Robert E. Howard Conan stuff, especially since I moved to Texas. Exactly how he could take the story of a guy hacking up other guys, mixing it up with some evil sorceror, stealing some jewel of bowel-watering power, and getting it on with some princess (usually alabaster-limbed, occasionally tawny), stick it into this cobbled-together setting of mishmash ancient history and vague mythology, and make it work, I don't know. There's also this really strong thread of Texas about Conan, just something of the tall-tale roughneck/cowboy/barroom brawling redneck about him. If I can find some way of convincing someone to drive me to Cross Plains, I'll check out their Barbarian Festival.

Jack The Bodiless

12:10 / 20.08.02

...also Julian May, obviously. Every year I set aside a six week period to go through The Saga Of The Exiles, Intervention, and The Galactic Milieu Trilogy. Wonderfully literate hokum written with panache and verve.

13:41 / 20.08.02

Comfort reading = reading in a hot bath reading?

I favour modern trashy detective murder novels - the combination of the mystery aspect and the gruesome bloody detail is strangely calming. None of your gentile Agatha Christies or D L Sayers here; I'm talking Minnette Waters, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Val McDermid, Patricia Cornwell, and the one who writes those ones with stupid faux-french titles (Death du Jour du Poisson and so on).

This is entireley inherited from my mother, who buys these books then passes them on to me when she's read them.

But Jilly Cooper is v good. Also Virginia Andrews.

Tryphena Absent

14:56 / 20.08.02

Who mentioned Tamora Pierce? Yeah I read the Alanna books, I loved them and still have them hanging around somewhere but don't tend to comfort read them, during exam periods I always revert to school stories. DWJ if I'm feeling depressed usually 'Fire and Hemlock', the Dalemark quartet or 'Deep Secret'- I love Chrestomanci too but can't really afford to buy anymore.
If I feel really ill I read Emma Donoghue's 'Kissing the Witch', 'Stir Fry' or 'Street Sleeper' by Geoff Nicholson.

21:31 / 21.08.02

I tend towards semi- or outright-fantastical books -- mostly those I read when I was younger -- when I'm unwell, unhappy, etc. Some of the books that I would definitely go for in such a state:

- The Princess Bride [William Goldman]
- Dangerous Angels [Francesca Lia Block]
- The Neverending Story [Michael Ende]
- The Narnia Chronicles [C.S. Lewis]
- Alice in Wonderland [Lewis Carroll]
- American Psycho [Bret Easton Ellis] <-- this is probably the "odd one out".. but I have read this book so many times that it never fails to comfort me in some strange way.

09:46 / 22.08.02

Comfort reading as reading which makes you feel better when you're feeling bad. When I was drinking heavily, Raymond Chandler novels were what I took down the pub. I can't think why, because when I have read them sober I struggle to piece together the plots - I didn't have a prayer drunk. Perhaps it was seeing Philip Marlowe with one foot in the gutter and carrying it off with the panache I couldn't achieve.
Other than that, Moomins and Narnia. The latter DEFINITELY with Pauline Baynes' illustrations - I'm sure I came across an edition with someone else's illustrations and it just wasn't the same dose of comfort.

Jack The Bodiless

13:33 / 22.08.02

Sax: Also saw a re-issued volume of the Borribles books in Waterstones the other day, which I just have to buy for the next time I'm feeling low...

I just found this edition today! My god, I love those books... I was extolling their virtues to miss spooky only a few weeks ago. Haven't read them in years... I'll have to dig them out.

glowworm_wiggle

18:13 / 23.08.02

harry potter.

Foust is SO authentic

17:50 / 28.11.02

I think I'm going to add House of Leaves to this list.

Also, I recently found an old copy of The Rats of Nimh. Calvin and Hobbes is making a comeback for me, in big way.

23:41 / 28.11.02

H.P. Lovecraft always calms me down and gets me in a happy, creepy mood. I've thought about why this may be before and have come to the conclusion that his style, with all its long paragraphs and no dialogue, requires me to sit down and actually pay attention to what I'm reading. No skimming allowed. Once immersed, it's all comfort.

I would also add Infinite Jest just because I've read it so many times - in August I had a severe sinus infection with a high fever and a lot of excruciating facio-cranial pain and read this the whole time and was very into into it.

08:24 / 29.11.02

P. G. Wodehouse every time. I consider him pretty much the master of farce.

07:17 / 05.12.02

Comfort reading. Ah marvelous there's nothing like taking an old friend off the bookshelf: my comfort reads are:

John Gordon "The Giant in the Snow"
Alan Garner "Weirdstone of Brisingaman"
Douglas Adams "Hitchikers & Dirk Gently"
Susan Cooper "Dark is Rising Sequence"
David Eddings "The Belgariad"
Raymond E Feist "Magician"
P.G Wodehouse - Jeeves and Wooster - love 'em. Although I am stuck with Fry and Laurie playing the parts in my mind.
George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series - nothing like a bit of debauched cowardice to see you through.

I love children's stories - there seem to be so many ideas in them, and they're often unclutttered by pretentious adult ideas that get in the way of a good story.

10:00 / 05.12.02

On the subject of children's lit, I heartily recommend "The Magic Pudding" by Aussie artist Norman Lyndsay (first published 1918). It's like JP Martin with a dollop of Ernest Hemingway (maybe) and a wee bit of Jerome K Jerome. The pudding of the title is a lovely, round, angry thing called Albert. No matter how many slices are cut from him, he never gets any smaller, and he can be whatever sort of pudding you fancy - one minute steak and kidney, plum duff the next. He complains constantly and bitterly about the way he is treated by his three owners - Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff - who are carting him around the country on a sort of meandering road trip. I reckon Uncle fans will appreciate the dry humour and casual violence (the three travelling heroes love getting into punch-ups with the various thieves and oiks who try to steal the pudding), and the illustrations by the author are fantastic (Lyndsay's day job was 'scandalous artist'; the painter character in the film 'Sirens' was based on him).

More info here.

Entire text (without illustrations) here.

14:01 / 05.12.02

Oh my god, Saveloy! I had forgotten all about The Magic Pudding - I used to love this! thank you, thank you.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:10 / 05.12.02

Another thing I'd forgotten: Zorba The Greek. Instant beach-with-ouza-and-fucked-up-dancing. It's just brilliant.

gentleman loser

21:38 / 08.12.02

Along with Calvin and Hobbes for comfort reading, I'm also a huge fan of Bloom County or late 70's and early 80's Doonesbury.

23:47 / 10.12.02

Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, of course.

22:46 / 02.01.03

I'm starting to think I'm weird, looking at everybody else's lists. When I'm sick I read Thomas Bernhard and Patricia Highsmith. I suppose I don't really like to be comforted when I'm ill, I prefer to have my dour opinion of the dreadful world that inflicted illness upon me confirmed.

For the lazy Sunday morning type of comfort though, I go right to the Bill James and Chester Himes novels. Tenderness and seaminess, all at once. They go well with tea.

10:31 / 05.01.03

comfort reading? sorry, im an old fashion gal, I prefer to clear out the fridge! mmmmm, brie and biscuits. My favouorite!

Tryphena Absent

11:17 / 13.11.03

I had to dig up this thread because I'm feeling quite lame today and have a sudden, desparate need to work through the pages of Jamaica Inn. I'm not quite sure why I love that book in particular but it really surpasses all the others by Daphne Du Maurier for me. I know a lot of people prefer Rebecca but it bores me a little. Frenchman's Creek is just a bit too trashy so it will always be Jamaica Inn for me.

11:54 / 13.11.03

The Homeward Bounders (Diana Wynne Jones) or the Hobbit.
Tryphena, I don't know how you can read DuMaurier and like it, I just don't see the attraction (yes, I know I'm a philistine) for me it would be like eating dry toast while poking myself in the eye with a lit cigarette- simultaneously boring and excruciating.

13:01 / 13.11.03

Hopelessly specialist suggestion (as ever) but - F Scott Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby Stories, if you can find a copy, are excellent comfort reading if you're comforted by amusing stories about people worse off than you are. Pat Hobby is a writer for movies, totally failing after the introduction of sound in film... he lives in his car, pitches his bad ideas to executives, and makes just enough money to drink, gamble, and exist. F Scott F, at the time of writing, was living exactly the same life if you replace pitches his bad ideas to executives with sells Pat Hobby stories to magazines... so it's not only funny, but also has this grim accuracy about it. And he comes out best often enough for the enjoyment of reading to be slightly less sick than I'm making it sound...

Tryphena Absent

14:33 / 13.11.03

I love the Homeward Bounders but I'm a massive fan of mid 19th century to 1930's pre-war literature. Dry writing is my favourite kind, long winding sentences that make you repace the words in your head. I suspect I like translated fiction for the same reason... not so much Russian because they always screw it over. It doesn't translate well but French, German and weirdly Japanese are usually fabulous. I find that Diana Wynne Jones has that kind of dry description in her stories and that's probably why I like her work so much. Of course the snag of winding fandom is that I'm possibly the only person on this earth that likes Villette and also finds it trawlingly comforting.

14:40 / 13.11.03

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
Gossamer Axe, by Gael Baudino
The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper
Entertainment Weekly (guilty pleasure)

Orson (Scott Card)'s a bit too involved for my sick days, and (Charles) de Lint gives me nightmares. I used to find the early Star Wars novels comforting (you know, the ones published between 1978-1981, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Han Solo at Star's End, etc.), but I recently started revisiting them and I now find them poorly written and rather squeamish.

18:46 / 13.11.03

OPB Haus: the Phantom Tollbooth, natch

Ooh, Christ, the Phantom Tollbooth. I love that book, I'll have to dig it out. I once got slapped down by a high-minded literature professor for comparing that to A Pilgrim's Progress.

Comfort reading - which seems to be what I'm doing increasingly at the moment whatever - is, for me, the Scots Ia(i)ns, Rankin and Banks; Carl Hiaasen (currently Stormy Weather); Kinky Friedman; old Invisibles collected editions; current affairs books by people like John Simpson/ Jane Corbin etc as long as they aren't too 'improving'; or non-fiction spy books (am overjoyed today because I found a copy of Spycatcher at long last!)

Either that, or I'm here. Barbelith is my comfort read half the time...

Whisky Priestess

23:11 / 13.11.03

- Golden Age sci-fi short story collections
- Sherlock Holmes, always, plus Holmes-based novels (7% Solution, Last Sherlock Holmes Mystery, etc.)
- My own stories from 3 years ago + older, to remind myself that they're not as bad as I think they are
- WODEHOUSE WODEHOUSE RA RA RA
- Can't believe no-one's mentioned Molesworth
- Anything by Michael Frayn or Nabokov
- American Psycho, but only when I want to wonder at the beauty of life
- Vegetarian cookery books. Aspirationally.

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