I’ve gone beyond Three Men In A Boat.
Holmes has failed me.
Too sad for Milligan and Toni Kurz can hang.

Saving the last Pratchett to ward off the winter blues and Val McDiarmid is proving to be a bit disappointing.

There’s nothing for it but the emergency Wodehouse and whisky.

Wish me luck.

the last Pratchett

I got halfway through and some part of me didn’t want to finish it. It’s good, so far as I have got through it, but something deep in my psyche clearly doesn’t want it to end, so I’ve started on other books.

Wooster is a delight, regardless of one’s circs. Especially delightful if there’s an aged A and a silver cow creamer involved.

I’ve just reverted to Wodehouse aswell. Bojo as Spode – Boris in blackshorts.

The Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks are great fun – I find them even more enjoyable than the written version.

I’ve been reading a good deal of Nevil Shute recently – he was an inter-war aeronautical engineer and has written some fascinating autobiographical work as well as enjoyable fiction. If you enjoy the language and attitudes of the period you’ll enjoy them.

Try Justin Kronin’s post apocalyptic vampire trilogy.
It’s bloody ace,

I have just started A man without breath by Phillip Kerr

Perhaps not “On The Beach” though – not exactly cheery!

For me, it’s perhaps an earlier Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash, Cryptomomicon – or a good Iain M Banks, Feersum Endjinn or Excession.

Try Justin Kronin’s post apocalyptic vampire trilogy.

You’ve read the third one? It’s only just out, isn’t it? how does it compare? I love the first one, but the second no so much.

Yup, was reading your post thinking ‘Only Wodehouse can fix this’..

I’ve gone beyond Three Men In A Boat.

Have you read JKJ’s Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow? Good stuff, check it out if not.

I’m deep into a detailed history of the Manhattan project and the atomic bomb for some reason. It’s well written and gripping but pretty **** depressing so I’m alternating with random bits of Pratchett when it all gets too much.

I’m saving it too (I was the same with Iain Banks, I saved Hydrogen Sonata for ages. No, it wasn’t his last novel but I had a sneaking suspicion that the Quarry wasn’t going to be very good)

Vurt, by Jeff Noon, is one of mine. It’s melancolic but absolutely beautiful. I think the Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley just joined it. Neither are funny but that’s not what I look for in a comfort book, I don’t want to laugh while feeling down, I want to feel better about feeling down.

If you fancy exchanging your current emotions for a bit of frazzled rage you could try Harry’s Last Stand, but be warned you might end up blowing up a politician.

Read the Quarry (not particularly that good) can’t say if I told you the ending as to if you would be disappointed

Not entirely sure what that means but I did read it- I just saved hydrogen sonata til last, because I thought it’d be a better one to end on. Wasn’t wrong!

I’ve just started View From the Summit by Sir Ed, he has such a nonchalant way of describing edge-of-the-seat adventure, it’s great. Easy reading, Boys’ Own adventure stuff with proper heroes.

I’ve got stacks, (quite literally) that I’ve yet to read, both dead tree and ebook, but there are books that I just go back to time and time again; one is When The Lights Go Out, by Tanith Lee. I saw it in the library when it came out in ’96, promptly bought it as soon as I’d finished reading it, and I’ve gone back to it many times since. To my delight it’s just, finally come out as an ebook, and after much searching over the web, I managed to track down a pristine hardcover copy in Canada for $18, the original cover price was £16.99. 😀
In fact, I’ve got two other hardcover copies, ex library copies, that I’m giving to friends as presents.
There are a few Roger Zelazney and Larry Niven books I keep returning to as well, Zelazney in particular has a great way with words that I get a lot of pleasure from.

Douglas Adams or Tom Sharpe for me for feel good comfort.
I never really ‘got’ Wodehouse. Beautiful writing but couldn’t get into it.

Comfort reading?
It has to be Dick Francis, surely?

The art of war. The time of comfort is over.