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Comfort Reads

davefreer
1–2 minutes

Australia is reeling with shock at the Islamic terrorist attack on Bondi Beach. I’m finding it hard to write anything coherent right now. Perhaps I should escape into some fiction. I should get my CAT scan results on Thursday, which (though trivial by comparison) is also not helping.

This is why escapism sometimes is a good thing, that I am proud of writing. If a book can give you some respite, can leave you feeling better for having read it, it’s a precious tool in the fight.

So: forgive me, but I’m off to read LEST DARKNESS FALL. It’s an old friend, an old inspiration. A comfort read. Then I might read FLINT again, and then THE UNKNOWN AJAX and because this is Australia, and it was a large reason I am here THE FAR COUNTRY.

Any recommendations?

16 responses to “Comfort Reads”

  1. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Well, you probably already have a fair asortment of Nevil Shute, not to mention Athur W. Upfield. Aside from you, I can’t recall any other notable Aussie writers.

    Reply
  2. Karen Myers Avatar
    Karen Myers

    Some of my old soothing favorites (YMMV):

    Freckles (Gene Stratton Porter)

    The Keeper of the Bees (Gene Stratton Porter)

    Brat Farrar (Josephine Tey)

    Kim (Rudyard Kipling)

    The Jungle Books (Rudyard Kipling)

    Quarter Share (the whole series – this is book 1) (Nathan Lowell)

    The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)

    A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

    Reply
    1. Karen Myers Avatar
      Karen Myers

      Reputations do change… the latest Gene Stratton Porter publications were favorites of soldiers on the front line, when sentiment was more in fashion.

      What holds these together for me is people trying to do the right thing, and a world which rewards that.

      Reply
  3. TXRed Avatar
    TXRed

    What the others have already suggested, plus:

    Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising books. They are officially YA, but from back when that didn’t mean 1)teen angst with romance or 2) teen romance with icky social stuff, or 3) first-person angst and social stuff. (Also lots of folklore and mythology and sense-of-place.)

    The first Dragonriders books by Anne McCaffrey. (Dragonflight, Dragonquest). Robin McKinley’s Hero and the Crown, and the Blue Sword.

    When my brain needs a non-fiction escape, I read archaeology and geology books, as long as they are not preachy.

    Reply
  4. TXRed Avatar
    TXRed

    Re. escapism. One of the emails from readers that still means the most to me was from a fan who said he read the Familiars books aloud to a family member while that person was in the hospital. The stories made the person laugh and forget troubles for a while.

    Reply
    1. D.A. Brock Avatar
      D.A. Brock

      The ‘Familiars’ books are some of my favorite escape reading. Thank you for creating them.

      Reply
    2. RCPete Avatar
      RCPete

      Yes, the Familiars are a great comfort read. Lorraine and Smiley got me through a scary medical issue some years ago. It’s good on a reread or four, too.

      Reply
  5. Seawriter Avatar
    Seawriter

    If you are on a Shute tear, let me recommend

    Trustee from the Toolroom (as sweet a story as can be imagined).

    Pied Piper (a really good piece of escape fiction).

    Beyond the Black Stump (for another Australian adventure).

    I think all of these are available at Fadedpage-dot-com

    Reply
  6. Celia Hayes Avatar
    Celia Hayes

    Regarding comfort reads (and it was comfort writing for me, during the Covidiocy) – I also had some emails from readers who loved my own series about the most perfect little Texas town of Luna City and the antics of the residents therein. It was a mental escape for me, even writing about Luna City, when everything seemed to be shut down and the establishment news media was doing their damndest to scare the snot out of everybody.

    Reply
  7. Jolie Avatar
    Jolie

    kipling. Especially his Three Soldiers stories.

    Reply
  8. Teresa Peschel Avatar
    Teresa Peschel

    Jane Austen.

    Reply
  9. Zsuzsa Avatar
    Zsuzsa

    I always go for Agatha Christie when I need comfort, one I’ve read before. Knowing how the mystery is solved lets me relax, pick up the clues on the way, and enjoy the company of Poirot or Miss Marple.

    Reply
  10. Mary Catelli Avatar
    Mary Catelli

    Children’s books. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber is a particular favorite.

    Reply
  11. Roger Ritter Avatar
    Roger Ritter

    In addition to the above recommendations, there is also the Bob and Nikki series by Jerry Boyd (the late, lamented…). If you haven’t seen them, the first is “Bob’s Saucer Repair”, and the 51 following books should give easy escapist reading for quite some time to come.

    Reply
  12. ericlhinkle Avatar
    ericlhinkle

    There’s a lot of stuff I read for comfort. History books, the Flashman stories, Judge Dee mysteries, those are just a few.

    Reply
  13. McChuck Avatar
    McChuck

    Just about anything by Nathan Lowell. Start with “The Wizard’s Butler” or “Quarter Share“.

    My other “comfort food” author is Dorothy Grant, especially “Climbing the Rim“.

    Reply

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