I am recovering from a knee surgery right now and I have a lot of time at home, so I am gravitating towards long books while I have the time to. I just started Paul Auster’s 4321, which is a tome! I do need the satisfaction that comes with finishing a book so I am also picking up shorter novels alongside the more mammoth ones. Yesterday I read On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia and I thought it was excellent! 

My ‘to read’ stack is ever changing, so any semblance of a thread between them all doesn’t stay intact for long. I have been really enjoying reading Westerns over the last year, and can’t seem to stay away from them for long. Cormac McCarthy has been a consistent part of my TBR for a while now!

I am not sure one book has shaped me as a person overall, but reading Beloved by Toni Morrison shaped me as a reader. It’s notoriously hard, in style and in content, but Morrison’s writing is truly incredible. I had picked it up so many times and never managed to find my way in it, and then one day it clicked and it is one of the most important books I have ever read. I think it’s a masterpiece. It was a lesson to me as a reader that you do have to be ready for certain books, and reading is a skill that grows the more time you spend working on it. Then when you have these experiences with books like Beloved, it will shape the way you read other novels going forward.

I am so guilty of judging a book by its cover, aren’t we all?! I have ended up reading some great books that I chose solely on their cover, one being North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud which I loved. But my TBR is mostly led by recommendations from the Buffy’s community, and the authors I read about when I am researching the books we are discussing. I also think Jess Lethaby of The Unseen Review is writing some of the best book reviews out there at the moment, so I love to read her Substack for recommendations.

I moved to New York four years ago and realised how hard it is to make friends as an adult in a new city! So I wanted to create a space for people to meet, and as an avid reader, a book club felt like a natural way to do that. And it worked, I have made a lot of friends along the way! 

Lot’s of research! We vote from five books every month, and putting this list together is one of my favourite parts of Buffy’s. I always hope people will find a book they want to read within that list each month, even if the one they voted for didn’t win.

Hugely! I am so lucky to be able to dedicate some working hours to reading now, so I am reading more than ever. I am nowhere near as analytical as I would like to be. I don’t have a background in literature, I didn’t study it at university, and I still find it hard to pull apart what I do or do not like about a book. It’s quite hard to put your finger on what makes a book work for you! But hosting the book clubs and having the space to discuss it with others has made me much more capable and confident at that, which in turn is something I am more conscious of as I am reading too.

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. It was one of my favourite books ever, and some people hated it!! It has an unreliable narrator who is deplorable, and I loved reading him as a character, but other people couldn’t stand it. It was a great discussion because it was one of those novels that either really worked for you, or totally jarred you. It’s also 600 pages, so a long time to spend with a character you can’t stand, I was grateful that those who hated it stuck it out! 

I think the cool book is the book you find AFTER the one you read because it was viral online. ‘BookTok’ is brilliant for getting people reading, and there are some excellent recommendations out there, but it’s repetitive. Say you read I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman and love it (that is another divisive book!) I think to go away and try to work out what  you liked about it and find another book along those lines, but through your own research, that is the cool book to read. It’s cool because it’s more personal to you and your interests, and it will deepen your understanding of yourself as a reader. 

I have had a few conversations recently with people reading Halldór Laxness, I haven’t read any of his work but I would like to. In terms of new releases, Mother Mary Comes To Me by Arundati Roy is one I have had a lot of conversations about recently. It is absolutely excellent and I think everyone should read it.

The film adaptations I am wary of are of the books I love the most and feel precious about. I believe The Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is due to be adapted soon, and I am unsure how any film could do that book justice. One of the characters, Judge Holden, is the most insidious character I have ever read in a book, and I don’t know how that work on screen, but I am willing to keep an open mind!

Total stillness, the closest I will ever get to successfully meditating!