Comfort Food...Comfort Reads

Oh dear, oh dear. In the middle of my researches into how best to cope with this summer heat...I have...caught a cold!

When I try to talk, I sneeze and cough instead, and my nose won't stop running. In the hope that it was uncharacteristic hayfever, I took a hayfever tablet yesterday, but no, this is a cold.

So, there will be more on my stay-cool strategies later, when I am feeling less coldy!

Now I find myself wanting to huddle. Yes, I know it is far too warm, but I find myself wanting to wrap myself up in soft warm fabrics, to snuggle with a book. Depending on the time of day I find cold cold water soothes my throat, or is too harsh on it. Likewise, sometimes sipping tea as hot as I can make it eases my sinuses, and other times scratches at my raw throat. Despite craving salad for the last few weeks, all I really want now is chicken soup, and comfort food.

This urge for comforting has started me thinking- I also crave comfort reads. I have pulled Pride and Prejudice off the shelf, again. And then at work, I was rummaging about in the children's library when a copy of the Very Hungry Caterpillar caught my eye. Which made me think about the children's books I loved as a little girl. Our library was in an old building- it looked like a church almost, having a kind of tower at one end, and inside was (to my memory) one large room, once you got past the little foyer part. Built around 1700, it was once a little school for boys- now the upper floor, the towery part is the Thomas Plume Library, and the public library has moved to a large new building. But when I think about going to the library as a little girl, this is where I think of.

I have tried to upload a picture I found on the web...it is not a good picture, as you always see the library from the long side, not this angle...if it hasn't worked, and you are interested, which you probably aren't, google image seach maeldune centre....but anyway.

So, my comfort reads- books that I loved as a young girl. When I have children, these are the books I want to be able to share with them too. There are more of course, but colds seem to make my brain fuzzy, and for now, this is my list. I would love to hear your childhood favourites, and your comfort reads. Perhaps next time I post, I will post about the books I loved as a little girl who was no longer confined to the picture-book boxes, but starting to roam the proper shelves...

The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr
The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs- The Ladybird version (if Dad missed one word, he had to start the whole story again!)
Shirley Hughes- anything of hers really, but especially the Alfie and Annie Rose stories.

And one more book that I was thrilled to win on eBay recently- A Story Party At Green Hedges by Enid Blyton. Mum had won this as a Sunday School prize in the fifties...and if I was very good, I could take it down and read it.

Have a lovely weekend!