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http://indiaknight.posterous.com/ultimate-comfort-reads
This got me thinking about my ultimate comfort reads; I often re-read quite a few of the books on this list, esp. Pride & Prejudice, Rivals and Little Women. Anybody got any more not on this list?
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I will never forget turning that page at the end and realising what a wonderful tale had been told. I've re-read it many times and the pleasure never deminishes.
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks , is mine at the moment but this changes often depending on mood.
Fun, always makes me grin at the characters antics and I get to the end and it leaves me smiling.
I also like Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, and anything by him.
Rebecca is always a bit full of excruciating-ness for me. To read for comfort I mean.
Anything by Alexander MCall Smith, not just the Glasgow ones.
Actually this goes back to the thread about recommending books - Liz is recommending books here but - I never read books on recommendation these days, it is invariably a disappointment and whilst that item has filled a few inches of space, it is not to be taken seriously by anyone, surely!
so, Van, I would have many that are not on that list and would discard most of them that are. That may say a lot about my reading habits ...
Agree with Liz re Alexander McCall Smith (all of them) and Armistead Maupin.
That was one of my Job Lot in the 2nd hand sale at Roadwater Fete 2 weeks ago!
On your recommendation, Baggy, I'll read that next when I've finished 'The Other Boleyn Girl'
Watched the film too many times. I'll try the book. The ultimate love story?
* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Surely you must know this one?
* I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - We read this at book group, quite enjoyed it
* Persuasion by Jane Austen - This one you must have heard of?
* Anything by Georgette Heyer - These are historical, and also hysterical. Very light reading and very funny.
* Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront
When I was a child I used to read Little Women, Good Wives etc. over and over again. Every time I read of Beth's death it made me cry. I practically knew that chapter by heart.
As I said up there earlier, Jane Austen, definitely NOT. PG Wodehouse, definitely NOT, 84 Charing Cross Road, gave up ten pages in, bored senseless. HE Bates, good for dramatisation, not for reading. Yes, I could dispute a lot on that list!
Lord of the Rings, definitely on my list.
The Blue Lagoon, H De Vere Stacpoole, definitely, (is that not a superb name for a novelist?)
Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K Jerome, timeless comedy
A Horseman Riding By trilogy, RD Delderfield, re-read and re-read and re-read. And The Avenue stories and Diana and ...
Howard Spring, any of them. All of them. I fall into them like old, old friends.
On The Beach, Nevil Shute, oh definitely.
ALL of Ray Bradbury's - bar none.
The Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens, love it love it love it.
first book is 'Run with the Wind';
second: 'Run to Earth';
third: 'Run Swift, Run Free';
fourth: 'Run to Ark'
fifth: 'Run to Wild Wood'
and sixth 'Run to Cover'
Who knows how many times I've actually read them. The first book is 27 years old now.
Agreed. I've also read the biography and other bits and bobs by her daughter.
Do I need help?
[quote=dorothyd]Jane Austen, definitely NOT.[/quote]
Hell's bells, Dorothy, dear girl, her books are a pillar of out national heritage!
Oh, I was forgetting you're on another island ;) .
I have been an 'overner' here for just 15 years, so I can't use that excuse!
That puzzles me....I've been to the house where Jane Austen grew up, in Chawton and it's beautifully restored to look how it did when she was alive, they even managed to get the little table where she used to write by the window. As far as I could see, she was a genteel, selfless young woman who loved her family, if the framed letters in many of the rooms are any indication and that she was very brave during her final illness though it must've distressed her so much how it weakened her and altered her apperance.
I'll admit I struggle with her books and find Jane Eyre more pleasant to read, but the film adaptations have been enjoyable and are my parents' favourites to watch every so often, while I loved the references made to Persuasion in the romantic movie The Lake House.
I avoid the adaptations as if they were the plague, too. TBH