I can't promise that this post will make sense. That's because I'm fighting off a cold. It's nothing dramatic, but it's one of those pesky illnesses that leaves you foggy - like your brain has been replaced by cotton balls.

I'm pretty useless at writing when I feel this way.* Instead of working on my WIP, I'm going to be spending my nights curled up on my couch under a huge blue-grey knitted blanket. I might watch a bit of easy, popcorn TV like Hart of Dixie or Arrow**, but after a little while that will stop holding my attention. I'm going to need to make it until at least 9:30 PM or risk waking up at 4 AM unable to sleep. In order to do that I'll turn to my favorite comfort book.

For a long time I read Pride and Prejudice when I needed to escape. That was until I picked up Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. I was in college when my mother recommended the classic English coming of age story. I've loved it ever since.

Something about this book captures my attention all while wrapping me up in the soft, fuzzy familiarity of that wool blanket waiting for me on my couch. It features aspiring writing Cassandra who pens her observations about her quirky family. They all live in a sort of noble poverty in a crumbling castle in the English countryside. When a set of wealthy Americans move into the manor house, their lives are all thrown into chaos in such a delightfully English way.

Dodie Smith is better known in America as the author of The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but this more adult book holds a much bigger place in my heart. As always I'm curious to hear what your comfort books are. What do you turn to when you need to escape the real world?

----- *As this blog post may prove. **Don't judge a sick woman for her choice in TV shows (even if the acting is questionable).