Old favourites

Jane Austen, Terry Pratchett, Josephine Tey, C.J.Sansom ( what would a psychiatrist make of this combination?) Mustn't forget Mapp and Lucia and I do enjoy re reading Libby Purvis's novels.

Mary Stewart's The Gabriel Hounds is one of my absolute favourites "I met him in the Street called Straight". I have recently discovered M.C.Beaton's Agatha Raisin detective novels and been completely hooked. They are so complicated that I can reread them without remembering who dunnit.

Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Jane Austen, J D Robb, Pat McIntosh, Alexander McCall Smith, Nora Roberts, Louisa May Allcott and Jean Auel. There are a few others but they are my favourites. There is such comfort in going back to these authors and you always find something new about characters or plot-lines that make it worthwhile.

So many here that go for me too: Austen, Pickwick Papers, Terry Pratchett for a real laugh, Bryson, Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles. I also love Mary Stewart for escapism, just re-read her Gabriel Hounds and the Moon Spinners. Susan Hill's Lanterns in The Snow for Christmas.

Feet of Clay and Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett. Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I go back time and again to Terry Pratchett when I need a good laugh.

A lot of people love Jane Eyre but I dislike it intensely. I just can't find anything to admire or sympathise with in Jane. I shan't waste time reading it again ever.

Of course The Lord of the Rings then Jean Auel's Cave Bear series - fabulous read, Anne MacGafreys dragon series, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice and last but not least The Belle Fields by Lora Adams. I can read all of these again and again.

I love Dickensian. Especially Great Expectations

Re-read Jane Eyre at least every year, Little Women, Girl of the Limberlost again and again, and started on the first Outlander by D.Gabaldon again.

I like Biographies of interesting historical folk and often re read them

The Magus by John Fowles. I was first introduced to it by a schoolfriend when I was fourteen or fifteen, I would read it secretly during boring English literature lessons, and have read it every few years since, I'm now 62 and took it on holiday this year to read yet again. It's a lengthy book and each time I read it I find parts I had forgotten so it never gets boring.

E F Benson, the Mapp and Lucia stories; National Velvet; Cold Comfort Farm; Little Women; Caroline Glyn; Elizabeth Bowen.

@Apricot - Sir Terry Pratchett's forty-some novels are frequently very funny, as are those of Robert Rankin (he calls them 'far-fetched fiction').

RF Delderfield, Nevil Shute, Penny Vincenzi

Any of the novels or short stories by Elizabeth Taylor. Virago have reissued many if not all her books. Or Dorothy Whipple, her most popular titles have been reissued by the wonderful Persephone books.

Any Margaret Forster, she is brilliant. My very favourite book which I have read and laughed over since I was 11or 12 (I'm now over 70) is The egg and I by Betty McDonald about her life as the wife of a chicken farmer in North America

How long have you got?
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Pride & Prejudice, Any Kate Atkinson, Most Joanne Harris, Far From the Madding Crowd (well most of Hardy really)
Barchester Chronicles, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

To be honest I re-read loads of books- it is like an old friend coming round for a chat. I can't give a book I love away but I have moved a lot of them on to Kindle now.
Oh! and of course Winnie the Pooh!!

I'll think of dozens more as soon as I've sent this.

Peter Pan had a huge unfluence on me when I was a child. I lived it, believed I could fly, and broke my heart over Peter.
Then Little Women when I was a teenager. I loved that family.
I can read those two over and over again.
Then, anything by Thomas Hardy, particularly The Mayor of Casterbridge which I studied for A levels and have gone back to many times.
Also, Daphne Du Maurier, I love all her books, especially My Cousin Rachel.

Yes Sarum and Cashelmara, also Georgette Heyer, Robert Goddard and Diary of a Provincial Lady (no relation to my life but makes me smile) and Agatha Christie about once a decade.

T.H.White; The Once and Future King - starts off as a childrens' story (in fact Disney made a film of it) and descends into a gloomy tragedy - brilliant!

I read lots of the classics when doing A Levels many years ago, and occasionally re-read some of my favourites.

As a teen I enjoyed all Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, and for pure escapism, find them great to read again.

Robin Hood and his merrie men/Boldness be my friend/Richard B Pape

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series - read and re-read each book about 3 times now and still love it.

NotTooOld Sue Townsend is sadly under rated. The Adrian Mole books are hilarious and and her articles in Sainsbury's magazine which have been published in book form are very witty.She sadly died too young.

Apricot - the first 2 are my favourites too. And the sequel to 3 men in a boat, 3 men on the Bummel.
And Pickwick Papers.
I also like Damon Runyon's short stories, I've re-read many times.

I love a funny book, like Diary of a Nobody, Three Men in a Boat, Cold Comfort Farm and Evelyn Waugh. These are all old, does anybody write books equally funny now?