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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 withwestrider, 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].
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].
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Date: 2012-10-05 04:35 pm (UTC)From:- A viewpoint character who I like and identify with. Tho this in itself is a pretty broad and hard to define category even just for my own taste. All the examples I can think of, tho, are broken in some way (maybe not at the start, but eventually), but keep going, deal with it, and eventually get something of worth out of that damage.
- Significant conflict/obstacles to overcome. I sometimes like Slice of Life and Gentle* Fiction, but they're not comfort reads to me. These should be mostly things coming from outside, rather than being caused entirely by the character doing stupid stuff and having to deal with the consequences.
- The main character always has something to do to keep them moving toward overcoming those obstacles and is doing it. This is a big part of why Paladin of Souls falls down for me compared to the other two in that "series": There's that really nasty chunk where they're stuck in the castle with nothing they can do while the sorcerers fuck everything up.
- And yeah, it doesn't have to be a "Mega Happy Ending", but it should be a clearly victorious one, even if there were costs.
A few off the top of my head:
- The Deed of Paksennarion
- The Curse of Chalion
- Komarr & A Civil Campaign (And sometimes Memory first)
- Sunshine & Chalice, by Robin McKinley
- Most of the Vimes books. Which in particular depends on my exact mood, but Guards! Guards!, Night Watch, and now Snuff are pretty regular there.
- A few other Pratchetts. Reaper Man, Pyramids, Soul Music.
- Narbonic
*I think that's the term I'm looking for. Stories where nothing bad happens.