Douglas Bruton, Carolyn Trant, and quality vs quantity – welcome to episode 147 or Tea or Books?!
In the first half, we discuss quality vs quantity in our reading goals (inspired by this Guardian article). In the second half, we debate two books we picked from each others ‘Best reads of 2025’ lists – Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton and Voyaging Out: British Women Artists From Suffrage to the Sixties by Carolyn Trant.
You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given. Sorry that I’m behind with posting those, but more are on their way…
And, of course, do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any questions or comments!
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
The Party by Tessa Hadley
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore [is the novel I was trying to remember!]
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Freida McFadden
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial by Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
‘Master and Man’ by Leo Tolstoy
A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Told in Winter by Jon Godden
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read
Emma by Jane Austen
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Hope Never Knew Horizon by Douglas Bruton
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
On the subject of quantity vs quality, I’m not a good person to judge – I read quickly as a rule and I read a lot, so how anyone can not read or only 4 books a year is beyond me! I think it’s something the individual has to decide, but I do wish we could wean people off devices and back to books.
As for Bruton, well I adored it so I’m glad you loved it too Simon. Bruton’s storytelling is so special, and Hope Never Knew Horizon is amazing too, isn’t it??
I read 141 books last year, obviously I am team quantity for the same reason as you guys: you can’t judge the quality of experience of reading a book beforehand, because it will be really specific to you. So the more I read, the more books I’m going to enjoy.
Can’t believe neither of you read Tessa Hadley! I was not a big fan of The Party, but I can heartily recommend The Past or Clever Girl.
Well I’m looking forward to the future episode, and my money’s on The Dutch House!
Thank you so much for this – thank you to you, Simon, and to Rachel. It is such a thrill to hear people taking about books and to have one of the books be my book. You never can tell how a book you have written will be received and so I am thrilled that you both thought Blue Postcards worth talking about. (Simon, I have sent you some messages in Insta). Thanks again.
Last year I just made my goal of 100 books, of which 18 were audio (including several Shakespeare plays; I have a really hard time reading Shakespeare but I really like a full-cast audio). I’m AMAZED that you finished 90 audiobooks last year — do you do them on double-speed?
And speaking of books about snow, I’d suggest Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton — she really captures the bleakness of a tough American winter. I also really enjoyed The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbon — there are several Furrowed Middlebrow books with winter and snow themes but I can’t recall all of them.
I do listen to audiobooks on double speed, actually, yes! That has certainly made a big difference. I find slow talking really hard, so the speed-up feature is a blessing.
Thank you both again for a delightful, thoughtful and entertaining discussion.
My instinctive quick answer to the question as to quantity vs quality is that I want both as far as books are concerned! I love the idea of reading as being like a treasure hunt for books you really love; I really identify with that and the more books you read the higher the chance of finding lots of wonderful treasure. Reading over the past few years has become my main and almost only hobby (partly life circumstances and partly it is what I love). It is also a kind of therapy and a way to connect – both through peopling my world with fictional characters and through bookish chats with bloggers.
Rachel I think in particular will be pleased to hear that the last book I read was certainly one that I regard as a treasure. I finally read Illyrian Spring. I absolutely adored it and already have reserved Facts and Fictions and Peking Picnic.
Blue Postcards was a book I both admired and loved although it did take me two goes to get into it. The first time I just felt I wasn’t getting it and put it aside after reading the first two pages. After reading Hope Never Knew Horizon I went back to it and that time it clicked with no problem. An illustration of the importance of the fit between a reader’s mood and the book I guess.
I read The Party instead of going out for a real party on New Year’s Eve! Now I have to decide whether to hurry to read The Dutch House before the next episode or to wait until the book-off.