A Giant List of Comfort Reads
These are the books I read when things are really bad. Like right now.
Hi Beyonders! I’m so happy Joanna is sharing this special column with us today!! We really need comfort books right now. Or at least, I do!
I’ve been getting so many emails from people who are delighted that Joanna has a monthly column with Beyond. Their book lists are growing. Mine is, too! And it’s about to grow more!! Enjoy! xJane
Friends, it has been a week. I don’t know about you, but I have been really struggling with despair, confusion, rage, and more. I’ve sought solace in my all-time favorite tv show, Gilmore Girls, and, of course, pulled a host of favorite novels off the shelf to read right now, as my brain can’t handle anything new. The overload is extreme.
Because I know I’m not alone, this month, in lieu of my normal column, I thought I’d answer a question many of you asked back in August, when I told you about my tradition of re-reading a favorite book in the final week of summer. So many of you wrote to tell me that you, too, read books over and over again, to weigh in on what I should read this summer, and, mostly, to request a complete list of the books I read over and over. So, as we enter into these uncertain times, I present you with: Joanna’s Ultimate But Definitely Incomplete List of Comfort Reads.
But before I get to that list, I have to ask: What books do you read over and over? Some of you have told me—and I was fascinated both by which titles arose repeatedly, and also by those that were new to me (see some in comments at the end)!—but I’d love to hear from, dare I say it, everyone.
But also: How are you doing right now? And what are you doing to cope?
And, finally, the list:
Le Divorce, Diane Johnson
Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie
Passing and Quicksand, Nella Larsen
A Time to Be Born, Dawn Powell
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon (I have inadvertently memorized the first paragraph of this one)
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Emma, Jane Austen
(Okay, maybe all Jane Austen.)
Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
Poser, Claire Dederer
Family Happiness, Laurie Colwin
*Also, every other Laurie Colwin novel and story collection and her two food memoirs, which are battered and warped and stained from use in the kitchen!
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
The Girls from Corona Del Mar, Rufi Thorpe
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Friend, Sigrid Nunez
All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Franny & Zooey, J.D. Salinger (but you knew that!)
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld
The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
Veronica, Mary Gaitskill
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
I’m sure I’m leaving out many titles—including a lot of the poetry to which I return over and over—but these are the big ones. I also, not going to lie, love reading my youngest daughter’s favorite books, which I’ve read aloud to her so many times I’ve memorized them. She’s eight and reads to herself now, but every night, before she goes to sleep, we lie down and read together for an hour, and on hard days I sometimes reach for her battered copies of Raina Telgemeier’s Sisters and Smile or
’s Roller Girl and All’s Faire in Middle School or Hope Larson’s All Summer Long trilogy, not to mention Judy Blume’s Fudge books (which make me laugh out loud) and, oh god, Ramona Quimby, whose exploits read very differently to a parent than a child.Okay, back in August, so many of you told me about the books you revisit again and again. Here are a few reader comments that I can’t stop thinking about:
“I rarely re-read books anymore (there’s always something new that catches my eye, like a new penny in the sidewalk), but re-reading was a regular feature of my child and young adulthood. Books from that time that I read over and over— A Wrinkle In Time, Little Women, The Secret Garden, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, The Bluest Eye, The Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.” —
“One year I re-read books I'd recently read, because I felt I might have missed something. What surprised me the most, and was also helpful, was how different my reception and experience of every book I re-read that year was. Mood, time of year/life, perspective, who-knows: so much can influence how we receive a book (or anything in life).” —
“Recently I reread a book my mom gave me when I first moved to NYC at 22, A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. I didn't return for its literary merit, but to return to a book that had some an impact on my idea of being a "woman of independent means" and how I saw it today, 38 years later. It was astounding. I am going to make a note to reread one book a year. It's valuable on so many levels, including a cozy, delicious revisit of a favorite place.” —
“I've lost count of how many times I've read all the books in the Harry Potter series. The first time I read it was in high school, at a point when I had stopped enjoying reading and learning, and each time I come back to it I'm reminded of the childlike joy of getting lost in a book and having no awareness for what's going on around me.” —
What books do you read over and over? Are any of these favorites of yours, too? And do you re-read for comfort? Or to be reminded of your former selves? Or something else entirely? Or do you hate even the idea of reading a book more than once, as several Beyonders told me via DM? Tell me now in the comments! I’ll be posting more reader favorites in my next column!
Love, Joanna
If you missed my October column, you can find it here:
Such a great prompt! I re-read the All-of-a-Kind Family series too, along with ththe Betsy-Tacy books and Madeleine L’Engle. I also really-read anything by Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Annie Dillard, Ross Gay, bell hooks, Mary Oliver, Denise Levertov, and Audre Lorde.
Oh, goodness. How deeply lovely to think that something I wrote here stuck with you. I really needed that today. Thank you. ❤️
I will also say that this week and a half or so since the election has been rough. I’ve found myself escaping into YA Romantasy mostly. There’s something so escapist about it, which I’ve been craving. But also, I think, some deep desire to imagine a world in which, however much peril we face, there are heroes and helpers and redemption and hope. That’s what my heart has needed to gird itself for what’s to come.