With all the news going on yesterday, I wasn't able to move off the sofa to properly blog. In my old age, allergies have appeared. And with allergies come sinus infections. So, as much as I wanted to take the debates that I saw unfolding on Twitter and my RSS feed and carry them over to our blog, I couldn't move. Instead, I turned off the iPad and read Jane Eyre.
Every two years or so, when I'm feeling especially crappy, I pick up Jane Eyre. It's my go-to book, when I need to escape for a day. I've probably reread it twenty times or so, since the first time I picked it up in high school. I read the whole thing yesterday on the sofa.
I'm feeling much better now, thank you. So, I'll try to blog about some of the discussions that should have happened yesterday.
Question of the Day: Do you have a book that you return to again and again?
Apt. 11d 
Yes, but they’re mainly romance novels. 🙂 For the sake of demonstrating pride in romance novels, I shall name a few I return to again and again: Miss Chartley’s Guided Tour (Carla Kelly), Fallen Angel (Charlotte Louise Dolan), Lady of Spirit (Edith Layton), Manhunting (Jennifer Crusie), and because Suzanne Brockmann’s Navy Seals books are on my mind because of the bin Laden assassination, I’ll say Get Lucky. Not one bodice-ripper among the lot, fwiw.
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Mine are Anne of Green Gables (and other Montgomery), Wind in the Willows, and the Agatha Christie mysteries.
Yesterday — I’m sick, too, it was Maeve Binchy’s Minding Frnkie, borrowed from the library digitally, and read on my iPad.
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I thought of another one, less romance-novelly: Up the Down Staircase. I love this book.
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For me, it was Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, LoTR, and P.J. O’Rourke. Those are probably in order from most recent to least recent.
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I reread children’s books — *Ballet Shoes*, *Traveler in Time*, the Alan Garner books, anything by Hester Burton or Ruth Arthur.
But back to *Jane Eyre*: I reread it a couple of weeks ago for my neighborhood book club, the first time in at least 25 years. I don’t know which surprised me more: the fact that St. John is a honkin’ big bully, or the fact that I never noticed that in my dozen-or-so high school readings of it. Back then, I just thought he was a bit of a drip.
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The book I read over-and-over is Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. It has everything I need: love, friendship, marriage, families, and Madison, Wisconsin.
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My husband does, and I don’t. I seek novelty. We do debate how deeply I can prune our collection. The Kindle is a wonderful invention, because ebooks don’t take up space.
For my children, Harry Potter is their comfort book. No question.
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The Nero Wolfe series, and sometimes Madeline L’Engle or The Westing Game.
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Mine are Edith Wharton, particularly House of Mirth, Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, most any of Alice Munroe’s stories. Jane Austin or E.M Forster will do in a pinch.
The Kindle had basically the complete works of Wharton for I think $1.99 when I was admitted to hospital in pre-term labour with only my iPhone on me and it saved my night and first day.
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I almost never read fiction, and when I do I usually re-read old favorites. Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon seems to push the right buttons, but I also return to Tolkien, Heinlein, and Asimov (though only Foundation). Repeat re-reading has come in handy for brushing up my French, as I can buy old favorites in French translation and read them without a dictionary since I already know the story and context.
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Comfort reading: Harry Potter series and Maeve Binchy for sure.I’m also hoping to reread the Anne of Green Gables series this summer; my daughters have just gotten into them, and it’s making me so nostalgic, as those books were a huge part of my childhood.
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Perennial favorites:
The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, both by Nancy Mitford
Fatal Vision, Joe McGinnis
Mavis Gallant short stories
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Konigsburg
New favorites:
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
Cryptonomicon, Anathem, both by Neal Stephenson
I re-read most books. It amazed me to discover that most people don’t.
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Fun question.
Every year or two, I read Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason, An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, and The Catcher in the Rye or Franny and Zooey depending on mood. I also read Joan Didion’s essay “On Self-Respect” from The White Album every year.
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I keep going back to Little, Big by John Crowley, but I am not sure it’s comfort reading. I also have to be careful about picking up George RR Martin’s The Armageddon Rag (it’s his best book) because I won’t be able to do anything else before finishing it.
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For me it used to be Georgette Heyer (pretty much anything she wrote) but I have now moved on to Lois McMaster Bujold. Reading all the comments, I really feel like going back to LM Montgomery, which is much easier than it used to be now I have a kindle and don’t have to find a library.
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GAH. How could I forget Heyer’s The Grand Sophy. I read that to my Sophie in the womb. I like to think it’s why she’s very practical, manipulative in a well-meaning way, and good at fake-crying. 🙂
Also, not Little Women, but Little Men was a favorite of mine. Haven’t re-read it in years, though.
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All the old stuff is available on iBooks/google/kindle. Which, as JennG says, is an absolute life saver in those emergency reading situations. I’s no fun to read on your iphone, but in a pinch, it’s waaaay better than staring at the ceiling.
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I am embarrassed to admit how many times I have read all of the Harry Potter, especially considering I was an adult when they came out in the US. I also read “Pride and Prejudice” like eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. If I’m really feeling depressed and want to lose myself I generally turn to children’s books (besides HP), I’ll read CS Lewis, Roald Dahl, Astrid Lindgren, E Nesbit, HC Andersen, Madeline L’Engel “Wrinkle in Time” series, etc.
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Nero Wolfe isn’t cheap on Kindle. Someone mentioned it above and I recall liking the one I read but not finding more in the library. I’ll try the library here.
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Interesting question. I re-read The Object of My Affection, a delightful novel by Stephen McAuley, with an inscription from a friend that makes me smile every time I look at it.
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Anthony Buckeridge’s Jennings books, and Richmal Crompton’s William books. The books Rowling returned to when writing Harry Potter.
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“Pride and Prejudice” is my number one, but I have a couple of YA fantasy books that I love to return to when under the weather, too.
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