Discussion Friday

[geraineon]

Let's talk about comfort reads!

Do you have different preferences when you're not feeling well? Or perhaps when you're anxious/sad/angry/other negative emotions?

What sort of tropes/story beats/other things do you look for in your reading material during these times?

Comments

[geraineon]

I tested negative for Covid, finally! (was down with it for more than ten days...)

During the entire time, I've been indulging in rereading stories, mostly of the funny/tropey variety when I am not watching a lot of dramas. I think I was looking for the "awww so cute" kinda feeling or the "this hurts a little in a 'nice achy bruise' way, but not 'destroy your soul' way."

[anehan]

High five for rereads! o/

[lessonsinescapology]

Hope you're feeling better now.

[halfcactus]

Congrats on testing negative!!!

[douqi]

Yay FINALLY negative!! Hope you're feeling better too.

I also reread a lot when not well.

[llonkrebboj]

So glad to hear you're doing better \o/ also YES achy bruising to the heart feels are the bestttttttt.

[silverblade219]

Congrats on defeating Covid!

[anehan]

Something that is familiar. It's less about the story itself and more about not having to expend energy on taking in new characters and settings. Which is why rereads of old favourites and fanfic are my choice in times of stress.

[geraineon]

Mm, rereads is so comforting! Fanfics too, yes! I've reread so many fav fics.

[aurumcalendula]

There are exceptions, but I generally look for stuff that's not set in the present day and usually end up rereading stuff.

[geraineon]

Are there any that are your go-to for rereads?

[aurumcalendula]

Aliette de Bodard's stuff (particularly her Dragon & Blades spinoff novellas) and some of Terry Pratchett's novels tend to be my main go-tos. Cnovel wise, I love rereading They Said I'd Met a Ghost, SVSSS and QJJ.

[lessonsinescapology]

Usually re-reading old favourites. Plots with less drama and angst and a happy ending.

[geraineon]

What are your favs to reread?

[lessonsinescapology]

Like All Round Midlaner or I'm not Human Anymore. I'd have to find the English names for the other novels and am a bit lazy at the moment XD

[liliacs]

I usually try to go for something that feels immediately engaging and has a lot of tropes I love. I get more distracted at those times, so it's harder for me to focus on something with a slow beginning as opposed to my usual, when I try to be patient and see how things unfold.

[geraineon]

omg yes... i'm usually looking for narrative popcorn basically. Usually when I reread during these times, I am not rereading the whole story, but I skip to all my favourite parts.

[halfcactus]

I read a lot of stupid (sometimes bizarre) things with over-the-top drama when I'm hormonally sad and volatile (especially during my manhwa phase) haha! Like one or two days later I'd look back on it and laugh at myself.

For a while my comfort canon when I was having a bad day was the I Ship My Rival X Me audio drama. So stupid, so fun, and the S1 ending theme always made me smile.

But yeah otherwise, rereads or just predictable/tropey stories, preferably with hurt/comfort tropes. A lot of het romance (TV/novels). Maybe fic, but I haven't been in the fic-reading mood for at least three years now. :(

[geraineon]

I love over the top drama too... the revenge stories with all the metaphorical and actual face slapping, along with all the sweet sugary things (and very silly stuff).

... I still haven't fix my issue with the various audio drama apps on my phones orz. I should get to that.

[douqi]

I reread Discworld a lot when I'm not feeling well and/or need emotional regulation. Stately, slow-paced Victorian novels also usually fit the bill. I definitely steer clear of the edglord-y type of queer novels during those times!

[geraineon]

Discworld is a good one!

Ah, I should do a reread of the whole series at some point... It's been a while.

[llonkrebboj]

\o/ Love this question xD

Depending on the type of anxiety, I listen to either of two very specific songs on a loop until brain calms. The first is Zhou Shen's 和光同尘 for anxiety related to doing things - it's a song about people coming together to do very difficult things with a gently triumphant HE ending. For unspecific wall bouncing type of anstyness, I use 万象凡音's 与山记, in which every line of lyric is a new stroke that paints the quiet mountain scenery in soft, fond colours.

They're comfort 'reads' because the lyrics that do the trick just as much as their composition xD

Childhood favs like Little Women, The Secret Garden and King of Shadows are great for angry days. NIF's unedited first 8ish chapters as well - I call them the NIF Jianghu adjacent adventures. Being so distant from real life yet relatively unstressful make them great rabbitholes of escapism.

When really really sick, usually eyes and brain reject any and all work, so I listen to Yi Shi Si Zhou's novel audiodrama adaptations Little Mushroom (beautiful worldbuilding in sound) and Pretty Boy (MOST RELATABLE mc inner voice I have ever encountered in my life xD). It helps that there's not a lot of thinking necessary because these are very 'in the moment' types of stories, rather than having complex threads of scheming and plotting to keep track of.

[llonkrebboj]

When hungry and ansty for MOAR sickly mc, the bestest band aid is rereading sickly mc real/fake shaoye tropey novels and the (also sickly mc) canon fodder/white moonlight/black moonlight/green tea system novel transmigrations.

[geraineon]

What are your favs to reread?

[geraineon]

Oh, that's an interesting interpretation of "comfort read"! Hm, I prefer silence or audio dramas when I am not feeling very well.

(and now I go check out the two songs you mentioned)

(and this is after: Ohh, I like them! Saving them!)

I really should get my audio drama apps fixes so I can buy and listen to the Pretty Boy mc.

[silverblade219]

I recently had Covid also, during which I read over 400 chapters of The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman in less than a week …. so I guess that one of my comfort reads would be stories that are similar to shounen battle manga?

[geraineon]

Hope you are feeling much better now.

I can see why shounen battle manga is comforting!

[xmarksthespotwhereistand]

I have a list titled Comfort Reads but they are actually my bedtime stories. I have to be careful with them because reading can really make my brain go and then no sleep is happening but my Comfort Reads list has these novels that, i think, are described as Kingdom building? Pretty repetetitive, the stakes might be high but the risk is also not big as the protagonist is competent and hardworking, there might be a family or found family and there are not big mysteries around 'how are they going to achieve their goal?' but i still want to read through all the steps. I also have some romances that are similar, they are usually set in the entertainment industry, so i guess, some also have the aspect of competent and hardowrking protagonist achieving the kind of goals i am interested in (making art! Fanservice paradox has a lovely passage about how idols are also worthy of respect and it is not just that specific quote but the book builds up to that moment of understanding, it's lovely.)