Book therapy.
What do those two words mean to you?
Have you ever turned to a book for solace and therapy?
Have you ever needed solace or therapy after reading a particular book?
Discuss.
I'll be back to post my thoughts on this post after work and such.
12 comments:
oh yeah, all the time! for me its like comfort food. i go back and reread a favorite author during stressfull or tense times. i also have fond memories of stories i read as a child/teen that help me remember great times...some of my favorites to reread are the JD Robb death series, also fantasy authors Melanie Rawn & Anne McCaffrey. Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz are other favorites as well.....the list could go on and on!
All. The. Time.
The single best cure for a bad day/week/month is to crack open and immerse myself into a good book. The stereo with complementary music playing and occasional glass of good wine make it even better. More for solace than therapy. Particularly since my tastes run to SF/F, there's usually another book in a series, where you can catch up with old friends, which the characters often become.
I haven't yet read a book that's made me want solace. Then again, coming out of a deep series (such as David Weber's Honorverse) feels like waking up from something.
Absolutely. No one in my family understands why I hang on to my favorite books, instead of taking them to the used bookstore. I re-read my favorites when I need to take my mind off my worries.
However, there is a type of therapy called "bibliotherapy" in which the therapist structures interations between a therapist and a client "based on mutual sharing of literature."
Bibliotherapy Pathfinder
When my wife was in the hospital getting pumped full of nauseating meds, she read Thinner and The Plague, which seemed to disturb the nurses to no end.
Heart of Darkness never fails to cheer me up.
Jane Austen and a glass of red wine. Nothing better.
Runners-up: Gone with the Wind, Watership Down, The Once and Future King. Richard Russo. Margaret Atwood.
Alice in Wonderland, when I'm sick and running a fever. The fever is essential. So I only get to re-read every 2-3 years.
On the other hand, anything by Colleen McCullough makes me want to tear my hair out.
I'm re-reading Kinsale's Midsummer Moon for the bamillionth time, because it's exactly right for a too-stressed, way-depressed, need to smile a little, sad kinda life.
There's lways a perfect book for every mood, I've found. The trouble is hitting it exactly right at exactly the right time.
Yes, I have.
I turn to romantica when I need help regarding sex.
Plain romance for escapism.
Romantic suspense when I feel like I'm in a rut and I need a little excitment of the cerebral type, but still need an HEA.
No one author writes all styles so I have too many to list.
Books have their place besides research and instruction.
Sometimes, you just want to have fun.
When I spent a week in the hospital about a year ago,plenty of books were brought to my bedside but I wound up rereading The World According To Garp,one of my favorite John Irving novels(and one of my favorites,period).
Little Women has also gotten me thru some tough times,along with Jane Austen(not that I need to be sad to read either JA or Alcott!). Sometimes,comfort reading can take some strange twists and turns-I remember really getting into The Corrections after 9/11 and enjoying it immensely.
A Prayer for Owen Meany can always be counted on for me. I need to have a book on the go at all times or I get a bit squirrely. What I'm reading depends on the mood and need- but to be bookless would send me over the edge.
My comfort reads are: Cordelia's Honor & The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold; JA's Persuasion; Crusie's Welcome to Temptation; The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery; The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye.
I usually pick one of them up when I'm in a reading slump. Or when I'm not feeling well. Or when I'm pms'ing and need an attitude adjustment.
Christine -- I totally agree with Watership Down. This one has been huge for me. Those rabbits sure have a way of getting at the bigger pictures in life. And Once and Future King. Good choice there too.
Also, when I'm in a creative slump, Nick Bantock's "Griffin and Sabine" trilogy are inspirational.
I could've used therapy after finishing Lord of the Rings. *stop laughing!* To have experience such a huge quest at a young, then return home to a normal, quiet dinner (after Sam says goodbye to Frodo)...how do you live the rest of your life? Everything else pales in comparison.
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