What are your comfort books? I define comfort books as the books I turn to again and again and enjoy each time I read them. Sometimes, I’m not in an adventurous mood and want to dive into a book that I know will have a good ending. Or I’m depressed and need to read the humorous stories that have made me smile and laugh In the past. Or I’m going on a trip and don’t want to be stuck with a new book I don’t like.
Some of the comfort books I depend on are:
- Humorous stories by P.G. Wodehouse and Patrick F. McManus
- Agatha Christie novels
- Murder mystery novellas by Rex Stout
- Mystery short stories by G.K. Chesterton and Melville Davisson Post
- Halliwell’s Harvest by Leslie Halliwell — a collection of reviews of Golden Age movies. Some of Mr. Halliwell’s observations are hilarious, even for movies he likes.
- Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes — an anthology of short stories set in the South by various authors. Some stories are funny, others poignant, and I enjoy most of them.
Your turn. What are your comfort books?
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, By the River of No Return (nonfiction) by Don Ian Smith, Wild Rivers and Mountain Trails (nonfiction) by Don Ian Smith, Coffee With Jesus by David Wilkie, Nature Trails and Gospel Tales by Ernest Herndon (nonfiction), and a new novel I’m sure will be a “comfort book”–Hemingway’s Cats by Lindsey Hooper. I know there are many others (I have a lot of books), but these are off the top of my head.
I haven’t read it in years, but “The Horse and His Boy” was a childhood favorite. I should try the nature books you listed. My oldest also enjoy natural history.
“The Horse and His Boy” is probably my favorite one of The Chronicles.
This is off-topic, but one time after reading “The Magician’s Nephew” and “The Horse and His Boy”, all sorts of spiritual applications started ping-ponging around in my head, so fast I had trouble getting the thoughts down on paper! Has that ever happened to you?
The most spiritual time of my writing life, and in my whole life, was when I decided to go for it and write a short story in two weeks to meet the deadline for Mt. Zion Ridge Press. The Holy Spirit filled me with an energy and an optimism I’d never experienced before. I wrote a10,000-word short story while getting ready for Christmas and felt like I could move the Appalachians if the Lord gave me the go ahead.