The Cozy Book List

It’s been a while since I made a book list. There are reasons, one being that this isn’t a fast process. The other is that due to the algorithms of ‘social’ media, I can no longer toss out the question of ‘what do you like to read?’ and get more than a hundred enthusiastic responses. Which is sad, because I refuse to believe that people are reading that much less than they did a few short years ago, and I know for sure that readers love to talk about books they want to share with other readers. I know I do! Even after all these years, I have the heart of a librarian and want to introduce folks to books they might also love, but I understand all too well that not everyone will like the same books I do. This is why I crowdsource the book lists, rather than completely curate them myself. It’s fascinating to see, with this list, what readers find to be comfort reads. 

Something that aligns with my own experience is that for comfort, readers seem to like entire series, or the whole of an author’s work, more often than a single title. I’ve tried to put in jumping-off points for those. 

“I read it three times. I know the plot twists, I know my reactions to the scenes. I like them, that’s why I read it again and again and again.” –Leeroy Jenkins (while recommending Monster Hunter International)

   
James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl
Monster Hunter International Larry Correia
Lest Darkness Fall L Sprague de Camp
The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer
Flint Louis L’Amour
Eric Terry Pratchett
Man-eaters of Kumaon
Jim Corbett and Raymond Sheppard
Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series Nathan Lowell
Children of Hurin JRR Tolkein
Book of Lost Tales JRR Tolkein
Spenser series Robert B Parker
Innkeeper Chronicles *and other series Ilona Andrews
Union Station series EM Foner
Carpe Diem
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Paladin series T Kingfisher
Beauty Robin McKinley
Watership Down Richard Adams
Combined Operations series Dorothy Grant
Alexander Orlov: The FBI’s KGB General Edward Gazur
Kitty Rocks the House Carrie Vaughn
My Name is Legion Roger Zelazny
The Sword and the Swan Roberta Gellis
Dyce Dare series Sarah Hoyt
Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkein
Hob’s Bargain Patricia Briggs
Time Enough for Love Robert Heinlein
Drumberley series DE Stevenson
Lord Peter Wimsey series Dorothy Sayers
Belgariad David Eddings
Master and Commander series Patrick O’Brien
Dreadnought and Battlestations! Diane Carey
How Much for Just the Planet John M Ford
Bloodthirst JM Dillard
Trustee From the Toolroom Nevil Shute
Juvenile books Robert Heinlein
Hopalong Cassidy stories Clarence Mulford
The Sleeping Dragon Joel Rosenberg
Ariel Stephen Boyett
The Lieutenants, and The Captains WEB Griffin
Undead Pool Kim Harrison
Honor Harrington series David Weber
The Lost Fleet series Jack Campbell
Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens
I, Jedi Michael Stackpole
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles Patricia C Wrede
The Joyous Season Philip Barry
Ware Hawk Andre Norton
Vision of the Future Timothy Zahn
Dinotopia James Gurney
All Cats Are Gray Andre Norton
The Cherokee Trail, Hondo, and the Last Stand at Papago Wells Louis L’Amour
Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand
Nero Wolfe series Rex Stout
Dresden Files Jim Butcher
Skolian, Major Bhaajan series Catherine Asaro
Vorkosigan series
Lois McMaster Bujold
Shogun and Noble House James Clavell
Mrs. Pollifax series Dorothy Gilman
The Blue Castle LM Montgomery
Arcane Casebook series Dan Willis
A Natural History of Dragons Marie Brennan
Wearing the Cape series Marion G Harmon
Paper Magician Charlie N Holmberg
The Cobweb Bride Vera Nazarian
13 Clocks James Thurber
Anne of Green Gables series LM Montgomery
Freckles and Keeper of the Bees Gene Stratton Porter
A Little Princess
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Kim and the Jungle Books Rudyard Kipling
Hot Money, Decider, and 10lb Penalty Dick Francis
Brat Farrar Josephine Tey
The Dreaming Jewels (or The Synthetic Man) Theodore Sturgeon
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
The Heritage of Power serries Lindsay Buroker
Star Nomad series Lindsay Buroker
Tree of Ages series Sara Roethle
Witches of Karres series
James Schmitz and Dave Freer
Joy Comes in the Mourning Dave Freer
Moth and Cobweb John C Wright
Watchers, The Bad Place, and Dragon Tears Dean Koontz
I hate to CookBook Peg Bracken
Scaling the Rim Dorothy Grant
The Wizard’s Butler Nathan Lowell
Thud! Terry Pratchett
The Forest
Stewart Edward White
Starship Troopers Robert Heinlein
The Outlander series Diana Gabaldon
Father Tim series Jan Karon
Posleen or Troy Rising series John Ringo
The Moon is a harsh Mistress Robert Heinlein
Podkayne of Mars Robert Heinlein
Interview with a a Vampire Anne Rice
The Travis McGee series John D MacDonald
The Callahan’s Bar stories Spider Robinson
One For the Money Stephanie Plum
Rimworld series JL Curtis
The Corfu Trilogy Gerald Durrell

 


Comments

6 responses to “The Cozy Book List”

  1. Will Linden Avatar
    Will Linden

    Charlotte Macleod, Peter Shandy Mysteries
    Anthony Boucher, O’Breen/Jackson mysteries, Sister Ursula, Case of the Seven of Calvaey
    Ford, The Dragon Waiting

  2. Michael F Flynn’s Firestar series.

    It starts as a private space program doing what the government programs couldn’t. (Who’da thunk it)

    Christopher Stasheff’s Starship Troupers, the first book being A Company of Stars.
    (note the spelling)

    A group of old and young actors spreading culture and revolution among the stars.
    Stasheff was able to finish the series before passing.

  3. Kit Borden Avatar
    Kit Borden

    I have lots, but the top 4:

    Taran Wanderer – Lloyd Alexander (the 4th Prydain book, which are all worth rereading)
    Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
    Prentice Alvin – Orson Scott Card (3rd Alvin Maker book, start with Seventh Son, but Prentice Alvin is the one I always reread)
    The Deed of Paksenarrion – Elizabeth Moon

    I always buy cheap used copies of Ender’s Game and Paksenarrion any time I find them so that I can let people borrow them without worrying about them being returned.

    Also, anything by Louis L’Amour.

  4. The rise of social media, along with Google deliberately attempting to kill blogs and blog reading, has really been detrimental to actual socialization online. The blogosphere, decentralized and quirky and intensely individual, was far to be preferred over facebork and tw_tter. Now, even blogging software seems more geared to eyecandy and clicks rather than, you know, reading and commenting. It’s unfortunate, but getting people to change back never seems to work.

  5. I’m keeping this list, some of these are yes of course!, some of these are, I’m going to look them up.

  6. Alan Dean Foster: Adventures of Pip and Flinx.
    Fritz Lieber: Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.
    PG Wodehouse: Jeeves and Wooster.
    George MacDonald Fraser: Flashman.