Comfort Reads
When I was younger, I read my favorite books over and over again, partly because my town didn’t have bookstores, but also because these books made me happy no matter how many times I read them. Even today, it doesn’t matter that I have read them a million times. Re-reading them brings me comfort. These books shine the worn places on the life I’m living, and they draw me back into the magic of their stories.
I always want to read books that challenge me, and I adore the excitement and thrill of a new book. But the old books are like old friends, and I always love being with them again.
Below are some of my favorite comfort reads.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Who could resist the creative, verbose redhead who steals the hearts of an entire town? Anne leads the ultimate story of friendship, family, and home through her hilarious misadventures and sweet triumphs.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen will always be my favorite Austen novel. It is sly, hilarious, and heartwarming, with one of the best love stories between equals ever written.
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. Conroy is an amazing novelist, but he may be at his best when talking about the books and book people who changed his life. I’ve read this so many times that I almost feel his stories are my own, but I never get tired of reading about the teacher who changed his life, or the glory days of the Old New York Book Shop.
Straight Man by Richard Russo. I wrote about this book here in the early days of this blog. A fellow English teacher long ago told me I should read this book narrated by a college English professor, and I have read everything by Russo ever since. You can’t miss with any of his books, but this one, about a father, husband, son, and teacher who feels lost in every aspect of his life, never fails to make me laugh and to move me deeply.
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton. It’s the story of a group of women who meet every week to share their writing, their families, and their lives. I never read it without thinking about my own Wednesday sisters.
Any of Bill Bryson’s travel books. Travel memoirs are a sweet spot for me, and Bill Bryson is so cranky and funny. For every trip, he packs a strong sense of nostalgia and a clever eye for detail, and he brings back wonderful descriptions of his destinations that always leave me eager to visit.
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I only read the first book because my seventh graders recommended it to me in my first year of teaching, and I did not expect to like these books. But I loved them so much that for a while, I reread the whole series every Christmas break, and now I still can’t get over the joy of reading one of this series again. I re-read the last book with my son this summer, and one of my chief reading joys has been sharing them with my husband and children. The magic of the school feels real, but not as real as the magic of the friendship, and the courage and integrity of the characters. I will be forever grateful to that first class of students I had for bringing this series to me.
What are your favorite comfort reads?
