Comfort Reads
My family and I all ended up getting the flu over the weekend. Our symptoms have been tiredness and cough and thankfully none of the grosser aspects of flu. Our daughter Plum (age 2) got it first on Friday and stayed home from daycare. I started feeling it Friday night and was pretty exhausted Saturday and Sunday. Gus (age 5) and Lauren got it Sunday and were sick Monday too. When you’re sick, and even more so when your kids are sick, you are looking for anything and everything that will provide comfort. I think it felt a little magical to Gus when I told him, “Whatever you want to eat, you can have it.” “Can I have another popsicle?” Yes! You can have as many as you want. And for both Gus and Plum, one thing that provides comfort is when Mom and Dad read to them. Now, reading may have been just about the last thing we felt up to doing! But it got me thinking about what makes a good comfort read. Here are some factors I came up with about what a comfort read is to me.
1. Familiar Setting and Characters
A comfort read has to be a book I’ve read before (probably multiple times) with familiar settings and characters. I want it to feel like I’m visiting old friends. This is especially important when sick or otherwise stuck somewhere because it lets me get out and about, at least in my mind. Comfort reads are great whenever you’re stuck somewhere, like inside on a snowy day. “And since we’ve no place to go, let us read, let us read, let us read.”
One series that I returned to often from age 12 into my teenage years is The Cat Who… mystery series by Lilian Jackson Braun (no relation!). In fact, last year, I re-read The Cat Who Blew the Whistle and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it! After the series protagonist Jim Qwilleran moves north to Moose County, the comfort factor goes way up with charming characters and settings I love. Another trip to see Polly at the library? Sounds fantastic.
2. Nothing Too Heavy
If the book has any moments designed to get the heart racing, it’s not going to work as a comfort read for me. The book may be the perfect re-read any other time, but not when I’m just trying to get through the day. Instead, some light tension is about all I’m ready for. How does this work then for mystery books with a murder to solve? Let’s have that discussion about so-called “cozy mysteries” later! (And let’s include “cozy mystery” TV shows in the discussion. You know the truth about Jessica Fletcher, right? She’s the most prolific uncaught serial killer ever!)
In this category, I think about the book Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Have you read it? It’s a semi-autobiography of a family with twelve children with parents who were “efficiency experts” for manufacturing. Their parents’ profession is especially relevant because it plays into how one could manage a family of 12! The stories in the book are funny and light, perfect comfort reading.
3. But I Still Want to Think
This one might be unique to me, but a comforting book should still give me something to think about. Perhaps it’s elements of the characters and their choices or how they interact with each other. Perhaps it’s aspects of situations and wondering what I would have done or what it would have been like to be in that situation. Or, in the case of a mystery, perhaps it is aspects of solving the case. Having pieces to ponder on makes me forget about being sick for a little while.
A couple books come to mind here. Both are a little heavier in content and theme, but my familiarity with them helps balance this out. The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first detective novel that J. K. Rowling published under the pen name Robert Galbraith. No mystery series is as re-readable as Rowling’s. And even knowing the ending, I still appreciate the clues dropped along the way and the dynamics between the characters. The other is My Brilliant Friend, the first book in the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. The Neapolitan Novels are the greatest novels of the 21st century, and it is further demonstration of their brilliance that they can be considered a comfort read!
One last suggestion that just came to me as I was re-reading this post: The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston. This is a non-fiction book about jungle exploration and “ground truthing” lidar scans that found massive ancient settlements in Honduras. Author Douglas Preston is a mystery author, and he brings this sensibility to the book.
4. Drop In, Drop Out
One last facet of a comfort read—I need to be okay starting the book from any point in the story and stopping whenever I need to. If I have to start at the beginning each time, then it’s likely I’ll end up reading the first few chapters more than the end of the book. Nothing wrong with that, but a comfort read accepts you with open arms even when you start on a random page. I can keep a bookmark in place and start there, even six months after I was last reading the book. A lot of this comes from familiarity with the work, but it also means the work has chapters with their own stories and a setup that isn’t too complicated that you have to read the first couple chapters to appreciate everything after.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume comes to mind for this category. I can skip around and read the stories that are most appealing to me in the moment, rather than needing to read the book start to finish. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is another one, a perfect book for skipping around to find the exact Anne Shirley moment you want to revisit.
What about for you? What makes a perfect comfort read? And what books do you return to again and again when you need comfort? Share your thoughts in the comments!