Posted in My Geeky Life
Comfort Books
Neil Gaiman posted a tweet this week about comfort books. I really liked the concept of it and realized that like many avid readers I do have comfort books, books I go to when I am depressed or mad. For a lot of people it was old favorites. Books that they returned to and reread over and over again.
This is not what it is to me. I just have too many books to read to go back and reread books. Now with me using so much of my extra time to write, I have even less reading time. Someday I could see rereading books but not right now. My comfort books are really comfort authors.
Authors whose books always delight and amaze me. They are my “go to” authors. I don’t read all of their books as soon as they come out. I put the new book on a shelf and wait for a time that I need that comfort book to pull me out of whatever doldrums I find myself in.
I have to do it this way because most authors just release one book a year, some even fewer. I wait because I want to read it when I need it the most. I have lots of books on my shelves waiting to be read but my comfort books are books that I purposely wait for the exact right time to read it. Here is a list of my comfort authors and links to their sites. After the migraine I had this week I might have to pull one off the shelf.
If Mr. Pratchett decided to take a crack at rewriting Ulysses I would read it. Favorite book: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
I had to laugh that the idea for this blog came from Mr. Gaiman because he is all over my bookshelves. Favorite Book: Neverwhere
Repairman Jack is the best character in horror/suspense fiction. There have been rumors for years about a possible movie but I dream of HBO picking it up for a series. Favorite book: The Haunted Air
I made the mistake of whipping through all of her books really quick and then having nothing to read. Now she goes on the comfort shelf. Favorite book: Bones
Sarah Vowell cracks me up. Anyone who can write a book about Assassination of American Presidents and make it funny, that’s talent. Favorite book: Assassination Vacation
The John Rain books are what all suspense novels should be. Fast, action packed, gripping story, and a character that you probably shouldn’t like but do. Favorite book: Rain Fall
For me the mystery field has become Ian Rankin and everybody else. I made the same mistake with the Rebus books as I did Jan Burke – read them way too fast. Now I guard them like gold. Favorite book: Resurrection Men
Like Sarah Vowel, Cherie doesn’t have as many books out yet. Having decided to learn from previous mistakes I have put her on my comfort shelf. Of course as I wrote in an earlier blog I want to read her new book so bad that my fingertips tingle. Must resist urge. Favorite book: Four and Twenty Blackbirds
>Terry (now Sir Terry) Pratchett is my all time author hero. I've met him several times and he is always witty, flirty and generally charming… I'd love to be stranded with him on a lonely island….