A couple of times lately I’ve had to explain to people how I have certain “comfort books” which I read in times of trial. If I’m really upset or stressed, and I think I won’t be able to sleep because I’m so het up, I get out a comfort book. A comfort book is one of those books which you’ve read multiple times, so it’s not a terrible brain strain, but it’s also fun and takes your mind off your troubles.
My original comfort book, of course, was Lord of the Rings, which I have read many, many times. I’m not sure how many. At least 50 times, if not more. I have difficulty reading it too often these days because I almost know it off by heart. I tend to find genre writing comforting, too. Detective novels, science fiction and fantasy are my favourite three genres. The comforting aspect is that authors must follow certain lineaments; the interesting aspect is how authors choose to invert or subvert the genre without ruining the novel. I think the other comforting thing about genre writing is that there is often some kind of a resolution: the murderer is unmasked, good triumphs over evil, the Empire falls, and there’s usually some romance which coalesces as the book continues too.
My sister and I have “comfort films” too. Among my personal favourites are the original Star Wars trilogy, The Princess Bride, the Indiana Jones series and Moonstruck. I’m afraid that I know certain chunks of these films off by heart, and sometimes I might even drop a quote into conversation expecting others to know the references (eg. Those were the droids you were looking for), but then sadly I find that other people are just not as nerdy as I am. Or that I’m getting old, and youngsters these days just don’t get the references. Sigh.
So – do you have comfort books or movies which you like to watch whenever you feel down or stressed or just like being perked up? If so, what are they? And why do you like them so much?
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I’m a Lord of the Rings tragic too, dating from my teenage years. Pre-teens, actually, when I started reading it. I can still quote great chunks of it. And of course, like every other New Zealander, I know people who were involved in the movies (husband was a extra before the gates of Mordor, cousin has a credit, friends of friends and children of friends in this scene and that).
These days, when it comes to comfort books, I tend to go for substantial books. Middlemarch or Anna Karenina or A Suitable Boy or The Poisonwood Bible – something that will occupy and engage me for quite some time, taking my mind off my woes.
Marcus Aurelius in times of trouble, because it helps keep me from hating the people that stress me… and because it comes in nice bite-sized chunks.
As for comfort movies, and only discovered recently, “Hoodwinked” – a fractured fairytale version of Red Riding Hood.
Middlemarch, yep. Also Our Mutual Friend and Villette. Persuasion and Possession. A. S. Byatt’s Potter family tetralogy and Margaret Drabble’s The Realms of Gold. Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond saga. Oddly, The Silence of the Lambs, for the reasons you’ve given, I think. And if I’m feeling really pathetically reduced, Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey books, especially Strong Poison and Gaudy Night.
Oh I LOVE Villette, an under-appreciated masterpiece in my opinion. My favourite Bronte book.
I also love Possession, Maud reminds me so much of an English friend of mine, except my English friend is dark haired and dark eyed. Yes, both are definitely on the comfort list. I also like a bit of Jane Austen too.
(Confession time) I’ve never read Middlemarch – perhaps once the thesis is handed in, I should have a go. Also I never finished Anna Karenina – I got about 3/4 of the way through. I have trouble finishing books by Russians for some reason. They make me sad.
Re detective novels: I like Georgette Heyer’s Behold Here’s Poison because it’s got lovely words in it (e.g. persiflage) and the hero is such a delicious cad. I also like Agatha Christie if I just can’t cope with anything intellectual (I pilfered from my mother’s collection frequently around December/January this year when I was having a Thesis Despair Moment(tm)).
I also have a weakness for fantasy novels written for children/teenagers, but NOT Harry Potter (as discussed here in detail, I’m with A.S. Byatt one hundred per cent).
Any of the “Biggles” short stories.
Steve, you know what? I’ve got a really silly confession to make. When I was about 6 or 7 I read a Biggles book where naughty people were smuggling drugs by hiding them in chocolate bars. For some reason the mention of drugs in chocolate bars freaked me out, and I couldn’t read Biggles any more. Now, why would I be freaked out by drugs in chocolate bars, yet not be freaked out by Gimli hewing the heads off 42 orcs, or the Riders of Rohan singing as they slew? The mind boggles.
I confess to reading historical romances when I’m feeling down or blue or stressed. I have an embarrassingly large collection of mainly Regency romances, Part of it is the escapism into another world that is somehow much nicer than any real one – certainly most of them portray a very idealised version of history. Another is, oddly enough, their general predictability – I always know that there will be a happy ending, and everything turns out neatly and perfectly in the end, the way things don’t in real life. And as they tend to be stand-alone works, I know that I can set aside the hour or so it takes to read one as “me time” without the danger of it spreading into an entire weekend of reading an entire series, as sometimes happens with fantasy sagas ….
Raymond Chandler. It’s A Wonderful Life. And, yeah, good generic storytelling. For example: sci-fi movies by Paul Verhoven.
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Weird ‘ey? I feel blue so to cheer me up I’ll watch a movie about a death struggle with a race of bugs.
Works.
Marcus Aurelius in times of trouble, because it helps keep me from hating the people that stress me
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And the Book of Job. It’s funny because it’s true… Well God finds it funny.
Clint Eastwood movies when I need to buck up. He teaches you how to be a man.
Adrien@9 “Book of Job…well God finds it funny”.
Some jewish friends of mine find it hilarious that such a subtle book made it into the Xtian bible.
Back OT, before “Hoodwinked”, my comfort movie was probably “The Lion in Winter”. No need to watch (it’s all dialog), and each scene a bite-sized titbit oozing with the sort of venom I’d dare not use but was sorely tempted to.
“For example: sci-fi movies by Paul Verhoven”
I think all B movies are pretty great comfort films. The triple A standard being Die Hard, the Indiana Jones trilogy and Robocop.
Personally I love Total Recall, Bladerunner, Robocop, Terminator, Starship Troopers etc. Not for comfort so much, although I suppose I’ve watched them all multiple times, so maybe it is a kind of comfort.
My favourite books of the Bible are Ecclesiastes, Book of Job and Song of Songs. Ecclesiastes just cracks me up, it’s obviously written by a total depressive.
Mmm, comfort reading. Yummy.
Yep, it’s generally genre I reach for – well-thumbed literature (Dickens, Austen or C Bronte), sci fi (LM Bujold), regency romances (Heyer), or childrens books (A Ransome, T Pierce or anyone really).
Sadly, now that you’ve put the temptation in my mind, all three of my bookgroups are meeting this week so I will have to be good and keep reading these new books which I might not like, aware of the possibilty that when I finish them and I might wish instead I’d spent the time re-reading a Pratchett!
OH YES, I should have mentioned Pratchett as a comfort read. I know DEM likes him too.
Umm… Legal Eagle, I’m rather struggling with that confession. You’ve missed some very exciting children’s reading. (It isn’t quite the same when grown up)
I’ve never read any Tolkien. I’ve tried, but just wasn’t able to maintain interest for more than a couple of pages. Went to sleep about 30 minutes into each of the LOTR movies. Wouldn’t know a LOTR reference if I heard it. (er.. I presume that is what your comment refers to?)
Drugs inside chocolate? Hmm, this rings a bell, but I can’t place it. Now I’ll not have peace of mind until I find which book it is in. Stand by, it could take ages, there are 100 Biggles books.
PG Wodehouse for general comfort and if I’m thinking “my life is crap, it was so much better back in 19XX” then I read a book I first read in 19XX. I’m reading The Brazen Head at the moment because I’m feeling like 1990 was a pretty good year and my dad gave it to me then. Totally sooky moments see me reading Alan Garner. I wish I’d kept my Don Martin annuals because they would make excellent comfort reading too.
Steve, it was Another Job for Biggles. And yes, they were Lord of the Rings references – there’s a lot of violent battle action but that didn’t freak me out. Perhaps if I had worked out that the pipe weed that half the characters in LOTR smoke was a drug I would have been freaked out then!!!
One of my bosses just couldn’t get into LOTR either. When I found out he hadn’t read them, I hassled him, and he said that his wife had been hassling him for years, but he just had no interest. It’s funny what grabs some people and not others.
Su, I like Alan Garner too. The Owl Service was very very spooky.
I periodically re-read several books like the C S Lewis Chronicles of Narnia and periodically rediscover folk stories, generally of the European/Northern European variety, in various editions channeled through Ruth Manning-Saunders, the Brothers Grimm or others. Generic science fiction is oddly comforting too.
Those are my favourite books of the Bible too LE. Oh, and maybe Revelations.
I also like Revelations too, Tim! It’s my favourite book of the New Testament. I also like the start of John – “I am the word”. My most unfavourite part is Paul and his letters.
LE@19. I always thought John 1:1 was “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with Theos, and the Logos was Theos”. “Wyrd” would be a more accurate rendering into a germanic language I reckon. It’s certainly my favorite bit of the NT to hit those evangelical door-knockers over the head with their own ignorance.
As to Paul’s rants, maybe some comfort Vidal’s “Live from Golgotha” would give some comfort in the form of smartarse giggles.
This is exceptionally cool. Sorry, it just is.
Lemme guess, you ate it right?
When I’m feeling blue I like reading T.S. Eliot’s poetry because it makes me realise that there are people out there who are emotional wrecks.
Actually Adrien, I think that was part of my fear about the Biggles book – that I might come across some of this drug-laced chocolate and not be able to resist it.
I was a child of very odd and intense fears. I went through a stage of thinking I was someone else’s dream, and I was terrified of the moment the dreamer woke up.
John, when I’m feeling blue, the words of Keats always help me:
Kind of like Dave Bath reading Marcus Aurelius above. It’s a reminder of the frailty and short nature of life, but also of the joy in it.
I’ve got a couple of bits from english newspaper competitions (¿TLS?, ¿Grauniad?) for extremely short smart versions of famous books’ which would probably be comfort reading for many of you. I think one is called “how to be extremely well read in a single evening”. My favorite treatment? “The Wind in the Wilows” by A(drian) Mole in diary style. Now, who did loan it to… Can’t find it.
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