Thanks again for all your questions for our special Q&A episode of Tea or Books?
It took longer than planned, but here is part 2…
Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with suggestions and questions for future episodes!
Thanks again for all your questions for our special Q&A episode of Tea or Books?
It took longer than planned, but here is part 2…
Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with suggestions and questions for future episodes!
Great questions again and a very entertaining and interesting episode.
I love to think of Simon as seeking to emulate John Ames and Rachel’s cunning scheme for the author to still get something from second hand sales. I try to do my bit to keep the BLWW series going and often buy copies for birthday presents as well as for myself.
I still think Simon is right about South Riding but I do love Crampton Hodnet and often reread it in Autumn.
I intend to steal your description of ‘dust as part of the aesthetic of a home!’ Is it copyrighted?!
Hooray, I have already read The Professor’s House and Things We Never Say, both in 2026 so I am eager to hear next month’s discussion.
Thanks so much, Sarah! Please, take the dust description and spread it around. And I’m so glad you commented this because I had misremembered which book we were doing and had almost started the wrong one :D
Simon, in my second year at university I took a course in Victorian literature. We began with Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” (particularly painful as I’d just been dumped by a girl named Amy), then went on to our first novel: Middlemarch. Our professor introduced the work by noting that we were all in our early twenties, “the perfect age to read the novel.” He added that he envied us.
I didn’t read Middlemarch then – my edition was 864 pages – and have still not read it. The guilt I carry in pretending has followed me for decades.
If you do, I will.
Quickly changing the subject, my favourite Irish novel is The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.
My bookcases haven’t been dusted in the seven years since they were built. Because we live in the Canadian countryside it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Wading in here on the subject of Middlemarch. Nearly thirty years ago (in my 20s) I read Middlemarch because my husband to be and a friend who was an English graduate raved about what an amazing book it was. I duly read it and did agree. I also went on fairly soon after to read nearly all Eliot’s other books. I reread Middlemarch with high expectations a few years ago (as did my husband) and both of us, whilst we admired the cleverness of the writing and could appreciate some excellent and much cited observations (the last line in the book for example), neither of us really enjoyed it second time around and responded very differently.
Simon, or Brian – if you read it please do report back. If you don’t I am confident that you can survive and will not run out of other equally enjoyable and/or admirable books!!
Ooo I am very tempted by this challenge! Ok, by the end of the year, I’ll have read Middlemarch. Challenge accepted!
Are you planning to create some podcast merchandise? I’d buy a Stuck in a Book hoodie and/or t-shirt. A mug would be very on-brand!
Welll that’s an interesting idea, if there would be a market for it!