(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Playing online while watching tv again...at the moment a "Grey's Anatomy" re-run. Grey's is my comfort show.

I have all sorts of cultural things that comfort me and to be honest they are more satisfying to rely on than well, food and alcohol, although I do that too - more than I should. In that category *cough*chocolat*cough* comes to mind.

Some comfort books past and present include - the Spenser novels by Robert Parker (who I almost got a chance to see in person, but passed on it - have learned from experience that I prefer not to meet favorite writers and actors in person), Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels - which got me through the period of time around 9/11 (I read her novels like crazy on the trains and idiotically sent a fan letter about it to her site, which I wish I hadn't. Some people have foot in mouth disease, I have email in mouth disease.), Jim Butcher's Dresden series, Charlain Harris' Southern Vampire series, The Harry Potter novels, the PG Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster books, the Lymond Chronicles, and Elizabeth Peter's "Vicky Bliss" mysteries are all examples of some of my comfort reads. Also the X-men comic books. These characters speak to me, their situations, their pain, their struggle. I think the reason I adore the X-men is it is a series of comic books about characters who are misunderstood, exiled, and considered outcasts. The books are about prejudice, discrimination, intolerance, and the struggle against such things. They are about keeping one's dignity and integrity in the face of intolerance and in front of bullies. They are also about the feeling of being cast-out, different. The books I've listed above all have that in common - that idea of being uncomfortable in one's skin. Of feeling like an outsider. Of struggling to fit in. Of being different. Each of the leads is someone who is operating outside societal structure, who likes structure, but at the same time questions it, can't quite handle authority yet desires authority.
In short - the characters speak to me. Also each of the books I've listed above have very strong no-nonsense women in them - women who are not damsels, yet still feminine. Who can be the hero in their own right.

Comfort reads I define as books that do not require much thought. They don't make you bleed. They don't hurt. They won't change your mind or flip you upside down. Although that can happen. They aren't listed as "great literature" and more often than not, someone out there will tease or give you a disapproving nod for choosing to read them. They aren't in short on that academic reading list you'd get from your college professor. These are books you can more or less just emotionally fall into. The world surrounds you. You love the characters. And you do not, I repeat, do not want to come up for air. You just want to stay in this character's world for as long as possible. Curl up in it in front of a hot fire, with a mug of hot coco in your hand, while you just fall into the words. More often than not it is not the writing that makes me feel this way but the characters the writer has created, their inter-relationships, dialogue, etc.

Comfort tv shows are similar.

It's sort of like a scrumptuous dessert for the brain. Except you can eat it again and again without gaining weight or getting sick.

Anywho here's a meme:

What are your comfort reads?

Why?

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I find myself re-reading the Brother Cadfael stories by Ellis Peters, the later novels of Dick Francis and the WW1 series by both Jaqueline Winspear and Anne Perry. I think in all cases it comes down to putting myself in the place of a person who is trying to make the best life they can during times of enormous political or personal crisis. And taking comfort in the fact that they do rise above the squalor and try to make not only their own lives but the lives of their friends a better place, if only for a day.
And like you most of these have strong female characters who speak to me.

[wisewoman.livejournal.com]

Well, for a while there my comfort books were The Cat Who... series, but then I read them all. Wow, talk about comfort! Also Anne Perry, I guess. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series with Claire and Jamie. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, although I've had the last book for years now and haven't read it. John Sandford's Prey series, but again, I just read all 16 of them in a row.

Now I'm starting on the Dresden Files, so they'll be my new comfort books, I hope.

;o)

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Growing up I must have read each of Louisa May Alcott's books ten times, and when I was in college I discovered, read, and reread the Lord of the Rings and all of Jane Austen's novels (naturally those still hold my interest and make me happy).
More recently I've read the Harry Potter books multiple times, as well as Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries, and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.
Most recently I've started in on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and although I'm reading them all for the first time they are giving me that same feeling of joy and comfort (a world I recognize, and characters I can love to spend time with).
Although I have to second the loving of Ellis Peter's Cadfael Mysteries, I even went so far as to take a pilgramage to Shrewsbury, England (which was absolutely wonderful, it completely lived up to my love of these wonderful novels).

I love TV and movies, but when push comes to shove there really is nothing as deeply satisfying as a great book!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

So many, and depends a bit on particular need for comfort: I got through the final months of writing up my PhD on the Victorian family novels of Charlotte Yonge, but if I'm feeling unwell quite often it's John D McDonald's Travis McGee I turn to.

[westlinwind.livejournal.com]

What I reread when I just want to escape to familiar territory: Alice Walker's Temple of My Familiar; Stephen King - The Talisman, Black House, and some of the Dark Tower books; Charles deLint's Newford collections; Neil Gaiman's American Gods. And I really don't watch tv, but Lost has definitely become a comfort show. *grin* I think Stephen King and Lost fall into the "disapproving look" category.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

Most of my "comfort reads" are children's books: Charlotte's Web, Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, The Phantom Tollbooth, Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, as well as some adult fairy tales like The Princess Bride, The Last Unicorn, Stardust, The Little Country by Charles de Lint, and The Once and Future King. Some of those, though, may not completely fulfill your definition, since a lot of them are "literature" and most of them do require thought.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I like your definition of comfort reads. Myself I like Bridge of Birds, Howl's Moving Castle and Neverwhere. For me it's not that they don't require thought it's just that they've proven on rereads to hit the right emotional spots reliably.

[fara-shimbo.livejournal.com]

Comfort reads: Definitely the Cat Who... books, althoug the last two or three have been pretty awful. Why? Because they put me in a place full of interesting characters, and where the summers are never hot. Anything by Agatha Christie.

Actually, I don't have "comfort reads" so much as "comfort listens." The Cat Who audiobooks read by George Guidall are fabulous, and the Poirots read by David Suchet, and the Miss Marples read by Joan Hickson, are too.

[wisewoman.livejournal.com]

Do you have any fun pulpy reads? Books that you love but aren't something you'd post a review of or well necessarly talk about? Guilty reads for times when the brain just feels like mush.
You may or may not re-read them later?

Just wanted to add, that's a perfect description of The Cat Who... books; I'm almost embarrassed to admit I've read them, but they're just so damn...cozy, I can't resist them.

;o)