Comfort reads (or rather re-reads)

I am re-reading all Anita Brookner novels. Just love them.
Also, I often pick up a "William" book for a little laugh; as with PGWodehouse.
Can't get on with Barbara Pym although love Mapp & Lucia.

I've read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott many times and it's like an old friend.
And anything by Daphne Du Maurier, my favourite being
My Cousin Rachel.
And absolutely anything by Bill Bryson who always makes me chuckle. I read them over and over. (he has a new book out in early October and I can't wait!)
Also most of the Thomas Hardy novels are wonderful, particularly The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far From the Madding Crowd.
When I was young I read Peter Pan what seemed like hundreds of times. I still love it. And I agree about the Just William books, they are great fun.
You are right, these books are such a comfort. And, like you, I also read new books all the time. Can't live without reading.

Jolbrook

I’m a massive Anita Brookner fan, that really is comfort reading, absolutely love her books.

My absolute comfort read is The Shell Seekers. I return to it whenever I feel like meeting up with 'old friends'.

I’m not a big re-reader, but I’m just about to re-read the Rabbit books by John Updike, heard them read on radio four, and reminded me how much I loved them.

I'm re-reading the Mapp and Lucia books too at the moment! I've got shelves and shelves of detective fiction/mysteries from the 1920s to the present day, and for comfort reading I will always go back to the earlier ones - Dorothy Sayers et al.

I’ve read Gone with the Wind a dozen times over the last forty years and each time I find something that I’ve forgotten or missed. The historical perspective seems more important than the romance as I get older.

Elizabeth Jane Howard's ,The Cazalet Chronicles would make great comfort reads and even all the Agatha Christie's, read both of these authors quite a while ago, but if I ever ran out of books, which isn't likely, I'd enjoy reading them again.

The My Friend...... series by Jane Duncan. There 21 in the series. Sometimes I read the whole lot in order. Sometimes just 1 according to my mood.

For me it's Jane Austen, especially 'Persuasion'.
I also re-read all of Ellis Peters' Cadfael books this year when things were stressful.

I have recently re read The Dreaming Suburb by RF Delderfield. Will begin The Avenue Goes to War very soon. I love these books, they remind me of my Dad as he read them shortly before he died in 1972. I have re read To Serve Them All My Days and A Horseman Riding By several times. Pure comfort reading.

Barbara Pym for me, too- Crampton Hodnet was in my bag to take to hospital, along with “The Diary of a Nobody” and “What Ho, Jeeves!” on audio. I also re- read poetry for comfort: Larkin, Byron, Robert Frost and Shakespeare. I think we all go back to texts we know when we are tired, unwell or anxious.

I've started to re-read Pickwick Papers, since a comment on a Brexit discussion (kissing babies) reminded me of the Eatanswill election.
People don't change much over the centuries.

Sara65
Never thought to find another Brookner fan! She is all I can really enjoy at the moment. I like books that follow character's thoughts. Can't bear high action stuff unless it's daft like Dan Browns stuff.

I too find re-reading any of Jane Austen's novels good for calming and relaxing me. Her language is so subtle than no matter how many times I have read her I still need to concentrate which leads to a sort of accidental mindfulness state. I also find that I still find new things - little extra twists and meanings. Am at present on Mansfield Park for the uptytumpth time and enjoying seeing Mary Crawford getting her comeuppance!
For when I am in a more lighthearted mood I go back to Dorothy L Sayers.....Peter Whimsey is a joy.

Oh and every December, well from about the 20th, I slowly read Christmas Carol.

All the Miss Read books for me. So gentle and funny.Excellent characters and lots about nature. Dirk Bogarde is forever known as Drik in our family .

Barbara Pym, esp Some tame gazelle
Laurie Graham, esp The importance of being Earnest
P. G. Wodehouse, esp The code of the Wooster
Ivy Compton Burnett, now I know them all well enough
Middlemarch
Yes to Trollope and Jane Austen, esp Pride and prejudice
Yes to poetry, esp Hardy, Yeats

No wonder I don't get very far with my 50 books a year.
Detective stories are strictly bedtime reading but I only manage a page or 2 per night so always lose the thread

Hmmm!

My initial reaction was no, why would I re-read when there's a tidal wave of newly-published stuff that I'd need ten lifetimes to get through... but those of you who do revisit old favourites have made a very convincing case!

Jolbook

I started with Hotel Du Lac, and read them all, it was always such a treat to get a new one.

Sometimes when life gets particularly hectic, I wish I was living in a Barbara Pym novel

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
Definitely my all-time favourite.

Most of the Saki stories

Noticed The Shell Seekers mentioned too which I only came across recently. Really excellent.

I remember enjoying the film, Hotel Du Lac with Denholm Elliot. I wondered why it's not been on TV since but have just discovered (Google is my friend) that it was a BBC2 production.

Another Anita Brookner fan here, and was going to write that Barbara Pym is always good to go back to. It's like slipping into a quiet, calm well-observed world.

Rosamunde Pilcher is always an undemanding and pleasant read too. I loved the Shell Seekers.