Comfort Reads

RHYS BOWEN: Yesterday we talked about going back to a much loved place and whether we were disappointed or not. Today we're going to talk about revisiting a much loved book.
 Do you re-read books you've enjoyed? Do you have particular favorites you revisit again?

I love the feel of a real book in my hands, but on trips I've come to value my Kindle. I have it loaded with the complete Jane Austen, the complete P.G. Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christies and Dorothy Sayers. These are my go-to comfort reads when flights are delayed, when I'm too tired to read anything new and complicated.
Of course my Kindle is also loaded with newer favorites: our Debs, my friends Jackie Winspear and Tasha Alexander and Louise Penny and several non-mysteries.
I've become a huge fan of Kate Moreton (The Secret Keeper) and I sometimes like to indulge in the light-hearted froth of Sophie Kinsella.
So I'm wondering what books are your go-to comfort reads.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: I don't have too many automatic re-reads but I can always take a spin with Pride and Prejudice, The Golden Bowl, The Razor's Edge, Howard's End or The Age of Innocence. Confession here..I read far fewer mysteries than the rest of the JRs. I tend to throw myself into a time period or subject matter. Right now it's the 19th century and it's morphed into the world of the victorian lady travelers.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Ro, I'm fascinated by Victorian lady travelers! Give us your reading list!
Rhys, I'm trying to downsize paper books, so putting comfort reads on my tablet is great idea.  I do go back to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. Would love to reread Austen. And James Herriot. Right now I'm rereading The Hobbit, but in a gorgeous 75th Anniversary edition. Sayers, yes; PD James, no, although I love her books, they're not comfort reads.  Some odd choices: All Barbara Peters Amelia Peabody's. And Vicki Bliss. Susan Conant's Holly Winter books. Dick Francis. Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May books. Laurie King's Mary Russell books. Charles Todds' Bess Crawford's.
I like Sophie Kinsella, too, but my real British guilty pleasure/comfort reads are books by Katie Fford. They are funny romance/comedy of manners, and the characters always do ordinary things that I like; cooking or gardening  or living on narrowboats... Now I have to see if I can get them on my tablet as I don't think they are readily available in the U.S.

LUCY BURDETTE: I always THINK I'm going to reread so I don't get rid of books I love, but I find it very hard to go back and not forward. And since we have a big trip coming up in October, I'm already worrying about reading material. It may be that I'll have to read some on the Kindle or Ipad, but I'm still smarting from the occasion in which the Kindle failed as soon as we got abroad. Panic! Panic! Panic! I had to madly borrow books from other travelers...

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Huh. I can't remember the last book I re-read. (Which does make me look at ALL THOSE BOOKSHELVES in our house in a different way...yikes. What are they FOR? But maybe that's a different blog.) If I loaded my Kindle with things like Agatha and Conan Doyle and Grafton, I would be delighted to know they were there, but I wouldn't read them.
Funny, yesterday we were talking about being disappointed when you go back to a place from the past. In reading, I'm a "go forward." I'd rather read Sue's new "W" than "A" again.

HALLIE EPHRON: Rereads for comfort? Anne of Green Gables. A Wrinkle in Time. The Little Princess.  Or one of the novels of Booth Tarkington (Magnificent Ambersons, or Alice Adams.) Or something by Barbara Pym. Or a Stephen King book of short stories. Or Early P.D. James (the Cordelia Gray mysteries).

And speaking of Sue Grafton... it would be very interesting to read "A" and "W" back to back. Maybe I will.
HANK: OOh, yeah Hallie, it would. I'm doing it, too. (I'm interviewing her next week, so that'd be fun.)

RHYS: So let's hear from you. Who re-reads old favorites? And what are your old favorites?