I was catching up with a few blogs that I left in my other Google Reader account, and stumbled across Bittersweet Girl‘s response to the books of consolation meme. You’ll have to go over to The Bitter and the Sweet to see what she picked. I particularly liked her coda:
I’m fighting off the need to conclude with some defensive statement about the fact that I do, really, read “serious literature” too. The fact is, while I love, admire, learn from, and teach a lot of “serious literature,” it’s not what I turn to when my heart is broken, my stomach aches, or I cannot sleep.
Yes.
Adding Anne Lamott’s Grace (Eventually) to my Currently/Recently reading list in the right-hand column made me remember that her Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life and Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith are other works of consolation reading for me. Even though she is Christian, and I am not, I really like reading her essays on faith. I liked C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, too. And Lauren Winner’s Girl Meets God. Whaddayagonnado?
So my question today for my clever, well-read, compassionate readers is–can you name just one book (or more, if you wish) that falls into the consolation reading category for you?
Literature Should Mean Something in Your Life 