“The best books rebuild our strength so we can face reality, and maybe even fight to change it,” says author Francesca Segal, who wrote about the best literary comfort reads for yesterday’s Saturday magazine. Jane Austen is one of the authors she turns to when she needs a restorative read – which a number of Guardian readers can relate to.
“Any novel by Jane Austen offers ultimate comfort and escapism, even in the trickiest of times,” says Ryan, one of the readers who got in touch. “For me, Sense and Sensibility is the ultimate go-to. Accompany this with watching the 1995 film adaptation and it’s unparalleled joy.”
Anne looks to romance novels when she needs a comfort read, too, but more modern ones, by authors including Alexis Hall, KJ Charles and Nalini Singh. She says it took her years to “get over [her] snobbery” towards the genre. Although she is now in her 60s, it wasn’t until the first lockdown that she picked up a romance novel “and never looked back … it has delighted me ever since”, she says.
Another genre that comes up again and again is crime. Keran recommends Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels for times when you need a slice of hope: “Atkinson always manages to shine the torch of compassion even when writing about crime, loss, and secrets.”
In terms of a specific balm for troubling political times, Bradley wrote in to share that he found Women Talking by Miriam Toews helpful to read “during the chaotic days following the 2020 US presidential election”.
Despite the horrific experiences of its characters, the story of the abused female members of a patriarchal religious community (made into an acclaimed film in 2022) “was exactly the book I needed to read at that time”, he says. The way the characters are “sorting through their diverse opinions in a thoughtful and compassionate way, despite facing extraordinary hardship, inspired me greatly. The story felt like a model of group decision-making that we could all learn from.”
Meanwhile, Ruth shared her love of two books that are top of my own comfort reading list: The Summer Book and A Winter Book – both collections of semi-autobiographical short stories by Moomins creator Tove Jansson. “I have read these stories over and over,” Ruth says, finding Jansson’s observations of the natural world and relationships between people to be absorbing and calming.
In good books, at least, we can trust.
Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson in the 1995 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar
