My birthday’s coming up soon and my husband was asking me what I wanted. I didn’t have anything specific in mind so I joked: “You can take me to a bookstore and stand at the cash register to pay for everything I want.”

Oh, my sincerest wish.

He laughed and said “Why do people buy books when there are libraries?”

While I intellectually understood his question, I didn’t understand it emotionally at all, and I found myself saying: “Because they are my friends. I have books on my shelves that I know I’ll never read again (Nancy Drew mysteries come to mind) but they make me smile when I see them.”

And then there are books that I love so dearly, I re-read them as needed. Jane Austen’s Persuasion, both Winnie-the-Pooh books, Watership Down, Tolkien.

My lilacs are just starting to bloom and they reminded me of another book I need to re-read soon, The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle.

How about you? What are your comfort books?