Newcastle University

What do you find that discussing books with others adds to your own experience of reading?

I think it’s just sharing something that’s switched a light on for you, or meant something to you, and, you know, because that’s been precious to you, you want to enthuse about that to someone else. So I get quite enthusiastic about good books […]. Or, you know, Mike [her husband] is a sort of fountain of all knowledge, so if there’s something I don’t understand, he quite often might. I think we do talk about books and reading, or stuff he’s reading. What does it add? Well, clarity if there’s things you don’t understand, but sharing of enjoyment. This is the first time I’ve belonged to a bookblub, so that’s quite interesting.

How are you finding it?

Well, we started off reading the Mapp & Lucia novels, which I’d never come across before, about two ladies and the effect they have on the village where they live. It apparently became a BBC drama series – it’s a bit of a kind of send up, really, it’s just lighthearted. That was quite interesting. They were quite compelling little narratives, in their own way. That sounds a bit disparaging! Well, they were, they were fun. But what was interesting was that you spend your whole life as a teacher explaining to children these are not real people, these are constructs of the author, and this is how they’ve created them. And they all talk about them as if they’re real! [laughs] It’s quite funny, and I don’t know whether they realize, but I don’t know whether that was just a non-academic way of talking about it, and I’ve been used to more academic ways for a long time. So it was nice to get back to people just enjoying stories.