one of the more accurate ways of ascertaining one's favourite books—one least susceptible to voter fraud, shall we say—is to declare which books we like to re-read; which books we tend to read again and again when either tv is too stupid or the brain is too lazy to grapple with anything new; when we desiderate something pleasing and familiar. something cosy.these are my 10 comfort reads:
t. s. eliot, "the waste land: a facsimile and transcript".
j. d. salinger, "franny & zooey".
simpsons comics.
alan bennett, "forty years on".
p. g. wodehouse, "the code of the woosters".
john henry newman, "apologia pro vita sua".
a. e. housman, "a shropshire lad".
kenneth grahame, "the wind in the willows".
dickens, "the pickwick papers".
george orwell, "essays".
5 comments:
what? no seuss?
The only books I've read more than once are ones by Steinbeck, e.e. cummings and T.S. Eliot. (I have a feeling you'd have an opinion about the first two.) Oh, and let's not forget The Little Prince!
not lately. can't afford 'em.
"the little prince" is splendid. unfortunately i gave mine away.
i was reading a literary critic who said we don't really comprehend a book, especially a complex one like "the golden bowl", until we re-read them. while this is true, who has time for re-reading? especially when there's a tremendous number in the "haven't been read at all" pile.
While I tend to re-read quite a lot, my "comfort reads" would have to be Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and My Friend Flicka.
for the horseyness or the evocations of childhood when, presumably, you first read it?
though no "little prince" i do have antione de saint-exupéry's "southern mail" and "night flight".
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