Comfort Food or, What to Read When You're Sick, Depressed, Lonely, or just...in a mood

I don't know about you, but I've been obsessed, like eyes glued to the television screen at two a.m., with the goings-on in Egypt. I'm scared that if I turn the channel (or in my case, since I don't have television, log off the internet) that I'm going to miss the crucial moment when everything's decided.

Seriously. I'm spellbound.

I run from my computer to the car to turn on NPR and listen. When I get to work, I automatically boot up my computer to listen.

I cannot get enough.

And, oddly, this obsession of mine is like slipping into my comfy pair of sweats. When I worked in television news, I got my fix 24-7. I was like a heroin addict with a mainline IV.

The thing I like about the news is that it's always constant. Something, somewhere, is happening. And it's usually bad. Which, for some reason, is the stuff I get obsessed with.

Puppy dogs in costumes? Not for me.

Kids at a carnival? Who cares.

For me, I need the blood, the guts. And maybe, in some sad, depressing way, I need to see that someone's life is worse than I think mine is. Not that my life is bad. Far from it.

But we all have our days. Or weeks. Or months, where things just don't seem to be going well.

And we turn to our comfort foods, our comfy sweats, holey socks, blankies, and the comfort objects that just make us feel better.

For me, it's news and books.

So, when there's not anything catastrophic going on in the world, when it's a snow day and I'm at home, when I'm really sick (as I am now) and feeling sorry for myself, what do I read?

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien

All deal with fantasy.
All deal with the supernatural.
All have romance.

These are the books that are on my shelf held together with tape.
They're the ones I've bought ten times because I loan them out but cannot bear to be apart from them.
Page after page is falling out.
I write notes in the margins.

For a person obsessed with news, don't you think that an escape is needed? I do. I mean, no matter what's going on in the world. No matter what's going on in my life. These books are always there. They're my constant even when everything around me is in upheaval.

So, you tell me...what are your constant books. The ones you can't live without. The ones you'd have difficulty leaving behind if you could only take ONE to a desert island.