Pinball 1973 by Murakami Haruki. It's written before he really consolidated his style, but has a clunky charm all of its own.
Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
51–60 of 95 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#52Currently Anatham. Couldn’t tell why exactly but there’s something about the society described in the novel that I find very comforting.
I think about the Hylaean theorem world every few days. I’m afraid to reread it because it will consume so much time.
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#53Poetry's always nice for familiarity and rereadability. Perhaps Shakespeare's Sonnets .
What was your entry into poetry? Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
Shakespeare and Robert Burns were both blighted for me by being inflicted at high school.
Ironically I found that I really like A Midsummer Night's Dream by watching a movie version with my son who was performing in it at school.
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#54Catch 22. - I can re-read that over and over laughing at the silliness of their situation.
Also If you enjoyed Catch I recommend Vernon God Little
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#55Poetry's always nice for familiarity and rereadability. Perhaps Shakespeare's Sonnets .
What was your entry into poetry? Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
I got into it relatively recently, way after high school. I think I got my start mostly with Victorians like Christina Rosetti, maybe some of the Romantics. Far away enough in time to be interestingly different, but close enough that the language is comprehensible. And prior to all that modernist experimentation which moved poetry away from poetry as I understand it. (I don't denigrate that stuff but it isn't a good entry point.)
Shakespeare's sonnets are a bit more accessible than his plays insofar as each one is a small, manageable, bite-sized chunk. Nonetheless, they do require fairly slow, relaxed attention in an edition with good notes to get the most out of them. (When I was reading them, I would read a couple very slowly over breakfast every day. I miss being able to do that!)
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#56In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#57I’m surprised only one other comment mentions Harry Potter, which is definitely my answer. I was part of that “Harry Potter” generation that was right around his “age.” Those books really were incredible for spurring reading in children, and they definitely stimulated my imagination more than many activities in my childhood. Reading them now is comforting not because of the content of the book, but because of the fee…
I'm also in the Harry Potter generation; I was 8 years old when the first book came out. I remember my grandma recommending it to me at the time. It sounded like "kid stuff", so I didn't pay much attention to it and went back to reading Asimov.
I finally read this "kid stuff" years later, in my mid-twenties, and I liked it very much!
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#58Pratchett discworld series. Started when I was young and I still enjoy rereading them all, still spot some new things in them now and again too.
Pratchett is a very special author! Though not my absolute favourite, he does manage to combine brilliant humour with an incredibly observant social satire and deep, likeable characters.
BTW, if you like Pratchett, do you know the Discworld MUD? (http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/)
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#59Terry Pratchett- I've re-read Thief of Time the most but they all work.
For poetry, Mary Oliver.
Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?
#60I bought Cormac McCarrthy's Border Trilogy on a whim (had seen and loved the film of No Country for Old Men before). I'm based in the UK, but it honestly takes you places you can never go. Read the whole three books four or five times nows.