Curling up with a good book is one of our favorite pastimes and is especially enjoyable in the fall, with a blanket and cup of coffee. A book doesn’t have to deal with light fare or even comedy to make the reader feel good; favorites that we read over and over can be any genre and have plots that veer off in just about any direction. Whether it’s the memorable characters or perfectly crafted settings, our favorite books inevitably engross us and enrich our lives. 

Reading books you love more than once is actually a highly recommended activity. You’ll notice and pick up on things you missed the first time. Characters in beloved books are almost like good friends we can visit whenever we wish, and, as we age and gather experience, we respond to works of art in different ways.

Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” (1856) is one of the most recommended books of all time (and by one of our favorite authors, no less, which include Hemingway, Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Gaitskill, Harry Crews, and Philip Roth). (To learn more about Flaubert, check out one of our past blog posts.) 

Pulp fiction, hardboiled noir (think Elmore Leonard paperbacks with wonderfully trashy cover art) complete with femme fatales, crime to spare, and danger lurking at every turn are great fun. A book doesn’t have to be considered classic fiction to be enjoyable. 

Philosophical books are always enlightening, even if you’re not looking for any self-help. Insight into the human condition is always of interest. We recommend books such as Carl Jung’s “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” (1961), Jiddu Krishnamurti’s “Freedom from the Known” (1969), and the classic Hindu scripture (translated from Sanskrit), “the Bhagavad Gita” (written around 200 BCE). 

• Maya Angelou on Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”: “When I read Alcott, I knew that these girls she was talking about were all white but they were nice girls and I understood them. I felt like I was almost there with them in their living room and their kitchen.”
• Judy Blume on the classic children’s favorite by Ludwig Bemelmans, “Madeline”: “I loved it so much I hid it so my mother would not be able to return it to the library. I thought it was the only copy in the world. To this day I feel guilty. It was the first book I bought for my daughter’s library when she was born.” 
• Other highly recommended novels: “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy (one of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s favorites), Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” (favored by Lorrie Moore and Erica Jong), and “Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov (a favorite of Tom Stoppard and Michael Chabon).