If you’ve returned to your childhood home or visited anywhere from your past, you’ve probably learned just how true the adage is, that you can’t go home again.
But my home, and probably yours, is as much or more inside my favorite books. They go back almost as long as I’ve been able to read. Some are warm, some are scary, some are whimsical, and all of them are comforting, in one way or another, suitable companions for a seat by the fire.
Their characters are old friends, and I’m always happy to see them again. I can wallow in their difficulties without anxiety, since I know what will become of them. I can bask in their joys, even if my own life can’t necessarily match them. And they never age — even if they die, they never really leave forever, since I can always open the book again.
My own books, the ones I’ve day-dreamed into existence and made shareable with others… those are homes to me, too, the stories outweighing for me any technical observations I may make as my craft develops.
I can’t predict my own future — none of us can — but as long as I can bring my favorite books with me, I suspect I can be satisfied anywhere.
We make our lives not just with our real families and friends, but with the examples of all the stories we’ve ever treasured. That’s what those stories are for — to fill our lives with tales and examples, to guide us and console us… a place where we can feel at home.
Do you pay visits to a clutter of favorite books whose inhabitants are your friends and companions, whose company you keep? Introduce us, if you like, in the comments. Maybe others will adopt them, too — joint cousins, if you like, in our respective families.
Mad Genius Club 
30 responses to “You can go home again, when you make your home in books”
Dropping off a relevant quote from The Christmas Carol:
The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.
“Why, it’s Ali Baba!” Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. “It’s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine,” said Scrooge, “and his wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what’s his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus; don’t you see him! And the Sultan’s Groom turned upside down by the Genii; there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I’m glad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess!”
To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city, indeed.
“There’s the Parrot!” cried Scrooge. “Green body and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home again after sailing round the island. ‘Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe?’ The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn’t. It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!”
Yes. Brother Cadafael’s Shrewsbury and Nero Wolfe’s New York brownstone are familiar haunts.
For myself: Lord of the Rings, Unfinished Tales/The Silmarillion/Associated works, Farmer Giles of Ham, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Frederica, Cotillion, the Quiet Gentleman, Silver Chair, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Father Brown Stories, Cards on the Table, The Jungle Book, Clouds of Witness through Busman’s Honeymoon, Dean Koontz’s One Door Away from Heaven and Watchers. Maybe Look to the Lady
BTW, my favorite non-Mowgli Jungle Book story is The Undertakers
I think I’m slightly fonder of Rikki Tikki Tavi, but it’s hard to beat The Undertakers’ punchline.
I’m just about done with a reread of The Dark is Rising sequence (okay, a re-listen, since I can do that on my commute), which I read for the first time when I was about ten, and played a huge role in my lifelong interest in folklore and mythology of the British Isles. I will probably follow up with the Prydain Chronicles, which have been my dear friends even longer. And of course Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter have their roles (though Harry Potter didn’t come along until I was an adult). I only read Brother Cadfael through a few years ago, but I loved them, and I think it is time to revisit them. Lindsey Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco mysteries, with Falco and his gloriously chaotic relatives and their shenanigans always bring a smile to my face (and I do, one of these days, need to read the ENTIRE series, which I have not yet done, even though I first discovered Falco when I was in high school)
Andre Norton, especially the Solar Queen and Time Agent stories.
Some of my “reread favorites” highlights that make up my book home, starting in childhood. (It’s only that reliably warm subset of the vastly larger list of books I like.)
Juvenile:
A Little Princess ; Freckles & several other Gene Stratton Porter ;
SFF:
LOTR (Tolkien) ; Atlas Shrugged ; The Dreaming Jewels (Theodore Sturgeon); Foreigner Series & Chanur Series (Cherryh); Liaden (Lee & Miller) (lots); Lois McMaster Bujold (lots); Nathan Lowell (lots);
Mysteries:
Brat Farrar (Tey) ; some Dick Francis ;
Adventure:
Kipling (lots) ; Scaramouche (Sabatini) ; Shogun ; Jack London (some)
Romance / Comedy:
Jane Austen ; Georgette Heyer (most of the Regencies); P. G. Woodhouse (lots); Nora Roberts (a few)
Shogun is one of the very few books I’ve read twice.
The Dark is Rising series. Used to re-read The Little Princess fairly often, but not recently. The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown I read until they fell apart. Some of the older Doctor Who novalizations that added a LOT of depth to the characters (Curse of Fenric is a notable one.) Kipling poetry over and over and over, his prose less often.
A lot of what I reread to escape was military history rather than fiction. *shrugs tail* I’m Odd.
P. G. Wodehouse — especially Blandings Castle, Jeeves & Wooster, and Mr. Mulliner
C. S. Lewis — especially Till We Have Faces, the Ransom trilogy, and the Narnia stories
Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey stories
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories
I loved Till We Have Faces. I read it for the first time last summer and I am looking forward to reading it again.
It’s one of those books you can read again and again, and enjoy it even more each time.
For me, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft are old favorites along with pulp and cosmic horror and swords-and-sorcery in general. As are Andre Norton and Poul Anderson, the Prydain Chronicles when I can find them, Manly Wade Wellman, especially John the Balladeer, who is one of my all time favorite fictional characters, the myths of the Norse, C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry and Moore’s husband Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett and Ed Hamilton’s solar system of high adventure, Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee and the roguish Harry Flashman, so many stories and characters.
If I can list graphic novels, then Vicky Wyman’s three Xanadu stories have to be counted too.
I agree with most of your choices. Glad you mention Vickie Wyman and the Xanadu stories She was my sister in law. I remember you doing the art work.
A pleasure to meet Vicky’s sister in law. She was a fine lady and I loved her work.
However I have to correct you about me doing art for her. I never, ever, did any art for Vicky. I did get several commissions from her over the years.
My mistake. I know she did the art work I have several pieces of her work on my walls.
P.M. Griffin’s Star Commandos, Charlotte MacLeod’s Peter Shandy mysteries, Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds books, Sandy Mitchell’s Ciaphas Cain books. Also just about anything by Andre Norton, R.E. Howard, and C.J. Cherryh. I am particularly fond of Solomon Kane!
I’m a bit different in that, while I certainly reread, I’m a slow reader, so I don’t do it that often. I prefer holding off a few books by authors I love who are gone, so that I can “come home” to a book that is familiar, but new to me.
Authors on this list include Rex Stout (mainly for his Nero Wolfe series), Nevil Shute (whose quiet mastery of story and character is always reassuring), Heinlein (of course), Poul Anderson (but he wrote so much I might never catch up even reading at speed), and others not coming immediately to mind.
A couple years ago I published a Jules Verne novel, which had not yet been posted to Project Gutenberg in English (and may yet still be missing — checking on it, yes, still not there under either English title), and I was rather stunned on beginning to read it simply because it felt like “home” despite my not having read any Verne at all since I was maybe eleven years old. I have other Verne novels on my reading queue, including at least one more I mean to publish if Gutenberg does not beat me, and I look forward to them with boyish optimism.
Among other writers I’ve mostly discovered by publishing, the westerns of Max Brand are virtually always comfortable for me, with Robert Horton running a distant second, and Charles Alden Seltzer perhaps a bit behind Horton. (I *had* read some Brand before, but not many, compared to the sheer volume of his output.)
The books I’ve read more than twice through are less comfort reads, but…
*Les Miserables*, Wilbour translation, unabridged.
*Lord Jim*
*Nostromo*
*Ivanhoe*
*The Fountainhead*
*Atlas Shrugged*
…and possibly a few others I’m not immediately recalling.
If you get a chance to check out The Southern Star Mystery by Verne, give it a shot. The translation under that title didn’t feel clunky IIRC, and the core setpiece where the hero and his sidekick are chasing people around while mounted on giraffes is certainly memorable.
That is literally the one I published, under the alternate title of The Vanished Diamond.
Oops, I should have checked more closely! Hadn’t encountered it under that title.
It’s got like five variant titles of which I’m aware: The Southern Star, Star of the South, The Southern Star Mystery, The Vanished Diamond… and another “diamond” one I’m not remembering. The movie is The Southern Star.
And now you’ve sold it again… 🙂
Aw, shucks.
…and I need to try wrestling with Midj again to give it a snazzy new cover. It’s a tough one to get a good image for.
I don’t typically reread actual books. I grew up reading comic books so those are my go-to comfort rereads, and everything you said applies to my feelings when I reread them. X-Men is a particular favorite, especially the Chris Claremont years and the Andy Kubert-drawn stuff immediately after. I enjoy The Avengers and Superman and Spider-Man as well, and right now I’m going back through my old Wildstorm books. They’re not especially good reads but the art is fantastic and they have a coolness that transcends their badness… At least until the Fall From Heaven storyline. It all kind of falls apart around then.
My comfort reads list has dozens of books. I’d start with 3 wildly different ones — Zelazny –Lord of Light; Tolkien — Lord of the Rings; Smith — The Lensman series (The original 4 book magazine set is better, and on Project Gutenberg, rather than the expanded 6 volume set that is all you can find in books — there’s a long explanation of the differences, and why they exist).
I’d then add a bunch of Poul Anderson, who is probably the finest writer (very much IMHO) the field has ever seen, and whose quality varies from very good to brilliant (a lot more of the high end).
Leigh Brackett’s planetary romances.
Fred Brown’s short stories.
Clement — Mission of Gravity (the exemplar for hard SF).
Heinlein — particularly Double Star and Citizen of the Galaxy
Kuttner/Moore — Fury, “Shambleau”, “Vintage Season”, “No Woman Born”, and lots more
Leiber — Conjure Wife, Our Lady of Darkness; Fafhrd/Mouser
Piper — Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen; Space Viking
Reynolds — Revalation Space; The Prefect
Russell – Wasp
Schmitz — Telzey; The Withches of Karres (see if you can find the originals, not the Baen/Flint edited versions).
And a lot more.
SadLy, that’s not entirely true in my case: there’s been a few I’ve gone back to, only to pick up on virulent propaganda my younger self missed.
Then there are the early books in some 90s era fantasy series that got me hooked, but now I know there’ll either be no ending or a poor one.
Like the 2nd cousin who came to no good after early promise, the scandal of the Thanksgiving get-together.