I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.
This week's theme is comfort reads. Rather than just listing ten titles, I tried to think of ten different categories that encompass the different types of books I'd consider "comfort reads." These aren't so much books that I reread for comfort — since I rarely reread — but the kinds of books that provide me some kind of respite in my reading life. I read a lot of great books that are also heavy or difficult, but these books — while they may touch on heavy topics — bring a different energy to my reading life that is comforting or restorative.
I've enjoyed both Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood? and The World According to Mister Rogers. Mister Rogers' voice, even in writing, creates an oasis of calm where you can breathe easier. In his world, everything has an explanation, and even when things are hard, you can handle them. That's definitely comforting.
These sequential series hold a special place in my heart because they were important touchstones for me in middle school. There isn't a broader category I can put them in, because most fantasy doesn't constitute a comfort read for me, but these specific books do.
In this category, I'd put two favorites, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Mysterious Benedict Society. There are larger-than-life characters and fun wordplay, and the world-building is thoughtful enough that I can just delight in the world and the characters.
Long-time readers of this blog know that I'm working my way through Agatha Christie's full works, but I'll take comfort in anything that has a Christie-esque vibe.
This includes both novels like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and nonfiction collections like 84, Charing Cross Road. In order to be done well, the characters (or actual people) writing letters need to be entertaining enough to essentially monologue for pages at a time, which gives these books the air of catching up with a friend who's telling you a story, a comforting prospect indeed.
Books like An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore let me lose myself in the story as I race around with the characters trying to uncover a hidden solution.
A cast of fantastic, diverse side characters who all support each other even when they're bantering is my catnip. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and One Last Stop both fit into this category of comfort read for me.
Do I recognize some of the problematic elements of the series? Yes. Do I think the author is a raging transphobe? Definitely. But is the series something I still derive joy and comfort from? Absolutely.
The most recent example I have of this is Because Internet, where I got to learn fascinating tidbits about the origins of internet language without ever feeling like it was a slog to process all the information. I read a lot of nonfiction that is on the heavier side and/or academically dense, but nonfiction that's just nerdy and fun is much more of a comfort read.
There's plenty of literary fiction out there about people being awful to each other. But sometimes you can write a cast of characters that are all good people trying their best who come up against circumstances and simple misunderstandings, and that's enough to drive a plot forward, even if it's not especially action-packed. Two books that come to mind as comfort reads in this category for me are The Shell Seekers and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
What books would you recommend in these categories?
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Echo Wife and A Madness of Sunshine
Five years ago I was reading: Where Am I Now? and Dune
Ten years ago I was reading: The Language of Flowers
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