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Comfort Read
Oct. 13th, 2022 01:41 pmI've done with mystery stories for the time being- with a single exception- which we'll come to shortly. Barbara Vine finally killed my appetite. Her books are brilliant but dismal and I really shouldn't have tried reading one when I had the flu. Now I'm looking round for something else to fill the idle hour.
So to the exception, because finding myself with nothing new to read- while feeling ill and intellectually inert- I surveyed the bookshelves and found the only thing I could bear to lift down was my omnibus edition of the Father Brown stories- which I purchased when I was eleven. I know I was eleven because- in a departure from my usual practice I wrote my name on the fly leaf- and dated it.
It's one of the few books I retain from childhood.
I have all sorts of issues with Chesterton and often find myself arguing with him in my head but he's witty and wise (well sometimes) and funny and inventive and writes gorgeously and when it came to the test (measured against many books I tell myself I value more) Father Brown declared himself to be my comfort read- and I can't see- this late in the day- him ever being shoved aside.
So to the exception, because finding myself with nothing new to read- while feeling ill and intellectually inert- I surveyed the bookshelves and found the only thing I could bear to lift down was my omnibus edition of the Father Brown stories- which I purchased when I was eleven. I know I was eleven because- in a departure from my usual practice I wrote my name on the fly leaf- and dated it.
It's one of the few books I retain from childhood.
I have all sorts of issues with Chesterton and often find myself arguing with him in my head but he's witty and wise (well sometimes) and funny and inventive and writes gorgeously and when it came to the test (measured against many books I tell myself I value more) Father Brown declared himself to be my comfort read- and I can't see- this late in the day- him ever being shoved aside.
