Consolatory Reading.
Some recent blog reading inspires me to ask a question of you, Dear Readers: what are five examples of texts you turn to when seeking consolation? (Like, perhaps, when you are suffering from sleep depravation, looming deadlines, and a malfunctioning coffee pot on a muggy Wednesday morning in May?)
They need not be consolatory in any kind of typical way--just the things you turn to as you would to an old friend, for something familiar and comforting.
I have been thinking of my own, and this is what I have come up with so far:
1. Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot (yeah, yeah--shut up, Eng Sem'ers)
2. Saturday, Ian McEwan
3. Howards End, E.M. Forster
4. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
5. A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
(My goodness, that's a white, elitist list, isn't it?)
Post your answers in the comments so we can all have them at the ready when we need some comfort.
5 comments:
Jane Eyre
A View from Saturday
Last Days of Summer
An Ordinary Princess
Stargirl
Hmm. . .Four Quartets is definitely up there for me. Auden has some soothing qualities for me. Boland and Wendell Berry as well. Pride and Prejudice too. . .I hit the highlights.
But, here is a very strange one. I love to watch The Hours when I am down.
I agree with you, Bef--the depressing movie is an essential part of the comfort arsenal. In college my roommate and I used to watch "When A Man Loves A Woman" on bad days.
I think after reading these two comments that I might add the following to my list:
Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
Object Lessons, by Eavan Boland (I actually find her poetry a bit agitating--in a good way--but I love the autobiography)
PS: Erica, and anyone else who is interested--if you love Jane Eyre, you should try Villette. Dead nuns in an attic in France instead of crazy wives in an attic in England. Bitchin'.
I have not read Villette as of yet, but based on your description...it's a must :)
For real inspiration: Glimpses of Grace by Madeleine L'Engle
For escapism: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
For escapism into an alternate universe: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
For an insane commitment to long-term consolatory reading: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Anything by my sister, Janis Flores, especially during her Gothic period
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