Books that help me through tough times
You might remember that I’ve been participating in the Pondathon, a collaborative readathon hosted by CW @ The Quiet Pond. If you don’t follow them, YOU SHOULD. There are different characters that inhabit the pond, and each of them features different sorts of things!
Anyway, one of the features of this readalong is that there are side quests you can complete. In each quest you help the different members of The Quiet Pond with various tasks. For the most recent side quest, to get a bonus reward item we were asked to make a post about a book that helped us through a hard time. I talked about an important book to me on my Twitter, but there are so many that are dear to my heart. So I thought I’d make a blog post about it as well!
These books are comfort books, so I go back to them all the time when I’m feeling down. They’re ones that I like to reread when I’m feeling down. I can’t really pinpoint specific times that they helped me through, since I have depression and there are often times when I feel down. So I reread them frequently and that helps me get through! I’ll post links to the series/books at the end of this post.
The Song of the Lioness quartet
No one is shocked obviously. Okay to start off – look at these covers!!! Aren’t they so amazing? I love the old school style. These are the original covers, and the editions that I read. So even though they’re not up to fancy modern standards haha I still love them.
I read these for the first time as a young kid, so I think that’s why they mean so much to me. I read them at a very formative time! My mom lent me her copies and we talked about it as I read it, so they also have that feeling of love and safety that I associate with my mom.
Alanna is a super badass, and also goes through some really rough stuff. I like that this shows that just because you have some hard days/times, it doesn’t make you any less of a great person.
Honestly I would also include all the rest of Tamora Pierce’s books, they all have the same comfort feeling for me.
I brought these with with me when I moved away from home to college, and again when I moved across the country for graduate school. It’s hard being away from home, but it’s nice to have that feeling in a book that you can carry with you.
The Old Kingdom series
This is one of my all time favorite series. Garth Nix is such an amazing author, and the world he created is wonderful. I’m not sure what it is about these books. I think the main characters – Sabriel and Lirael – remind me a lot of myself, so it’s nice to see people like me going on adventures and triumphing over evil.
I also recently discovered the audiobooks for the first three books in the series – AND THEY ARE AMAZING. Tim Curry is the narrator, and he does such a fantastic job of injecting personality into the different characters with his voice acting. I put on the audiobook when I’m feeling anxious, and it helps to follow a familiar loved story.
I have to mention these covers as well – I love that they just feature the main characters so prominently! Seeing the Disreputable Dog on the Lirael and Abhorsen covers is great but it makes me want to see Mogget on the first cover (he’s a white cat shaped magical being).
Also just want to note that I put only the first three books here, but there are two more novels and a few short stories in the series.
Emergency Contact
This one is harder for me to explain why it’s a comfort book, but it is. Maybe it’s because both Sam and Penny (the main characters) read to me as having anxiety? As someone who also has it, it’s nice to read about how others deal with anxiety. I also really like that this plot is heavily texting based. I feel like my generation went from being obsessed with texting in high school to mostly hating it now. However!! I’m still one of those who actually loves it haha, so I like seeing friendship that utilize it.
Maybe it’s just that the plot is so happy and cute, and has a happy ending (spoiler I guess? sort of). When I’m feeling weird I need that reassurance and happiness in my life, and this book is perfect for that.
Links:
- Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce
- Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix
- Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
Do you have any particular books that have helped you through some tough times?
I’m glad that you have these books that have helped you! I feel like the stuff I read as a child doesn’t work for me now, so the closest I get to nostalgia is through rereads of Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl.
I love covers that have that old-school sort of look! So cool. 😀
Yeah I feel like it’s hard to find ones that work for a long time. It’s rare. Ooooo you’re reminding me I need to do an Artemis Fowl reread haha
So glad to see these be in your comfort group. The strong female character is wonderful to read about. It was more u usual back in those day than it is now. Love Tamora Pierce!!!!
yeah I love that it’s more common now 🙂