This weeks Booking Through Thursday:
"Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.
What do you read?
(Any bets on how quickly somebody says the Bible or some other religious text? A good choice, to be sure, but to be honest, I was thinking more along the lines of fiction…. Unless I laid it on a little strong in the string of catastrophes? Maybe I should have just stuck to catching a cold on a rainy day….)"
It's pretty hard to say what I'd read until the scenario happens. But I'm pretty sure that the trend is A Book I Know Has a Happy Ending to cheer me up. I will gravitate to books with really good reviews that am pretty sure can take me away from feeling crappy. So this year Driven by Eve Kenin and Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie were books I got because I was feeling down, and they did their job. It helps if the book is really well written too, like Tanith Lee's Silver Metal Lover – I think I read that 3 times during bad patches. And VERY inexplicably, and embarrassingly, I have read Simon R. Green's Blood and Honor like 8 times over the years when I'm feeling just blue for no reason. It's a comfort read and pretty… I hang my head here…sword-buckling fantasy something something.. I don't know why I keep reading it! The spine is getting damaged and if you know me, I'm REALLY REALLY picky about how I hold my books, but I've owned this one since I was 15.
I also just read whatever is available sometimes. After a break up I was reading some Sydney Sheldon novel, don't remember what it was about anymore. I've had a bad month and right now I'm reading Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson. I do not recommend it if you are feeling down. You will need breaks from the emotional turmoil, but I keep reading anyway.
specficromantic 
Oooo. I would of course, turn to a good romance novel. I think Susan Elizabeth Phillips is the way to go. I think some of my favs that I read over and over again are This Heart of Mine (there's a bunny and a badger in it, how can it go wrong?), Breathing Room, and Ain't She Sweet. I just love her characters. The books are very sweet but sometimes the conflicts the characters go through are quite wince-worthy. But in the end, you know you have a happy ending coming. Hmm, come to think of it, I might read one this weekend. Work is stressing me out …
My TBR is at 101. I have a disease. I HAVE, HAVEEE to make it go down!