You know how everyone talks about their comfort tv shows and comfort movies? A lot of the time, it’s because they already know how the story is going to turn out. Watching the same story and knowing the ending is comforting to some. I have a variety of comfort shows and even movies, but something that isn’t talked about enough is comfort books; Books that you read, again and again, knowing how they’re going to end but still wanting to re-read them anyway.
Most of my comfort books came from when I was a teenager so a lot of them are YA novels. The nice thing about comfort books is that the plot of the book itself doesn’t have to be what brings you comfort. But, maybe reading the book as an adult takes you back to a good time in your life where you first read the novel.
For me, that’s the case with most of my comfort novels. Reading them now, I realize that sometimes the plot isn’t very good, or that the ending might suck. But it takes me right back to being thirteen years old, sitting in my blue bean bag chair, staying up late on a school night to finish a book just because I couldn’t put it down. That’s a comfort book to me.
Other times, it’ll take me back to Christmas Eve when I was 15 and my aunt got me a book that was just so good I was up all night reading it while listening to Five Seconds of Summer. It’s moments like those that I remember being happy, and these books are able to remind me of these moments.
Everyone has a different relationship with books. My relationship has always been a good one. I wanted to share some of my comfort books and the reasons why I love them.
Love on the Lifts by Rachel Hawthorne
Love on the Lifts was a book I first picked up when I was 13 years old. I checked it out of the library over and over and over again until I finally figured out how to order a book from Indigo and bought it for myself. I read it again recently, and it is still the perfect wintertime romance.
Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
There’s something about the story of Katie and Alex that brings me immense comfort. This is one of those books I’ve read so many times that the cover is tattered, pages are falling out, and there are more cracks in the spine than I could ever count.
The Summoning, The Awakening, The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong
These books were my favourite series in Grade 8. My goal was to read each book once a month. Which I successfully accomplished. I haven’t touched them in a while, but the memory of how much I enjoyed them always makes me smile.
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
I was only 12 years old when I read this book for the first time, which I now realize ten years later that that is much too young to have read this series. I don’t think I truly grasped the mature themes of the novel then, but I sure do now. My favourite part of these books though is the connection that I had with my mom and nanny while reading them. They had both read the books in the past and I remember loving being able to talk to them both about what I thought about the V.C. Andrews’ series and all the Dollanganger siblings.
Take your time reading, and appreciate the words on the page in front of you. You never know when you may be reading your comfort book for the first time.