Warm, delightful, rereadable books.

[shadesofmauve]

Anyone who doesn't follow ursulav (and you should, on general principle) should go over and read her recent post on the kind of book she'd like to write.

It's interesting (and amusing, which goes without saying for her), and the comments are both interesting and heartwarming. I feel happier just reading people talking about their 'it makes me feel good' comfort reads.

In some ways it's the antithesis of all the conversation I've had with westrider, when we're trying to figure out what makes certain books depressing. I've thought about that a lot, because I try to avoid those that might send me into a depressive spiral (I get very caught up in books, and I don't need HELP feeling miserable). Maybe what I should've been doing is thinking about why any given book makes me happy.

It's not that my comfort reading doesn't have bad situations; a story with no conflict is boring. They don't always end perfectly happily, either -- they're never tragic endings, but they're occasionally bittersweet. Reading the comments, I think I've got a bit more handle on some other parts, too. I've always said that having a protagonist who's proactive is important to me -- I hate feeling trapped in the narrative, feeling like the protagonist and I are just buffeted by events. But for comfort level books, I also want to like, not just relate to, the protagonist. And I want them to behave reasonably. They don't have to be perfect, but if I'm cringing as I read and saying "No, no, god, don't DO that!" the book isn't going to be on the comfort-read shelf.

It's not exactly about Competence Porn -- they don't have to be particularly good at what they're doing -- but they better be trying the best they can with what they've got, and not making really painfully bad decisions.

There are other books that fall on the same shelf just because of when I read them -- Heidi (from when I was a child) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (first read when I was dealing with medical misery) are there because of that. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken) is another one from my childhood. But more current examples are a few of the Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey novels (especially the ones with Harriet), much of Bujold's writing (especially Curse of Challion, the Cordellia books, and the chronological middle of the Miles books), and... y'know, this list really ought to be longer. What are yours?

[by the way, on Saturday Erik and I are heading to Connecticut to spend a week with his parents, so if you throw titles and authors at me I may see if I can find them at a bookstore for travel reading].

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I used to re-read the hell out of books the way that kids nowadays re-watch Disney and Pixar DVDs. (I used to re-watch the hell out of movies in high school and college, too, but they were on VHS tapes. And get off my lawn). I'm familiar with the concept of 'comfort reading', the idea of returning to an old favorite book and re-reading it...but I just don't do it anymore. I think because my 'to be read' list is so long, that if I'm going to spend time reading, I'm going to be reading something new.

That said, when I cast my mind back to things I would re-read, most of what I came up with are the books of my childhood. I bought the core of the "Little House on the Prairie" series a few years ago and spent a few weeks burning through all of them from start to finish. I have the Chronicles of Narnia on my shelf--although I haven't read them since I bought them, I could, if I wanted to. Shapechangers by Jennifer Roberson fulfills an adolescent wish for fantasy and romance. It took me a billion re-reads and many years to fully understand The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks, and I still consider it a favorite.