A very of the moment piece Petya - well done on turning this over so quickly! I am now also being struck by the fever that I need to read Middlemarch. How convenient that Haley is reading it in May..... (its a sign). The push for classics on here is really beautiful I love it - and makes so much sense as a genuine response to the never ending slew of books that get published every day!! We all love books, but we don't love being bombarded with them! I feel like my classic a month goal came a year too early and would be much more timely now 😂
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on AK! My friend read it last year and did give it high praise so I am considering reading it too! I am not sure how many classic tomes I can take in a year - 2 might be a perfect amount!
LOL ... I know, like I didn't have my January reads post almost done... I had to make myself lose a little sleep. Seeing that Catherine Lacey note is what made me want to write it.
It's such a beautiful thing... a community of actual readers, many of us having grown up online with several less successful attempts of being part of a book-thing online. With all its issues, I think that the Substack format IS partially responsible for creating this magic.
I am reading Middlemarch with Haley, too. Her pace is just right for me. Anna K. with Henry E. is spread over the course of 14 months... which may start to drag ... I am trying to stay on schedule but (because I like it) I suspect at some point I may just want to finish it. It is very dramatic from the start - opens with a couple fighting over the husband's infidelity. 🙏😂🍿🍿
I would love to join a group reading Middlemarch- I tried it on my own last year and failed- is there one? I am already part of Simon Haisell's War and Peace Slow read and it is great for accountability.
Check out Haley Larsen's Close Reading Substack. She is leading a Middlemarch read starting in May. I have done two read-alongs with her so far and both have been great experiences.
Oh yes! Do come join us for Middlemarch in May! (And for any of our reads before that, if you'd like! We're just getting into Pride & Prejudice right now!)
self promotion makes me physically ill but i do think slowly reading, reading the classics mixed in with contemporary fiction, has sort of been the main point of my whole blog so far??? agree with everything you’ve said here, alongside with the slow realization in later adulthood that i do not have to try and reinvent the wheel every day. we can analyze the wheel and appreciate what it’s doing (sorry for this metaphor).
also middlemarch is an all-time great novel, one of the true masterpieces, of the “i’m so glad i read this as an adult” tier.
I hope people don't feel offended or excluded when I say this, but the reason I brought up the age of the Substack user-base for that exact reason -- the joyous realization that so many excellent books were lost on our youth! We not only have time to read them but also can actually appreciate them more fully as adults with actual lived experience to connect them to.
When I read The Awakening last year, I just kept thinking... how is this profound story of midlife despair and womanhood in any way relatable to high school kids (when most people read it)?!
An interesting piece, Petya. I have also been a bit surprised by all the classic book clubs on here, and I think you have tapped into something; the fact that people are yearning for deeper insights and reading experiences.
I am perhaps not the target audience for such groups, however, as a recovering student of English literature over several years, I often find myself moving more towards reading contemporary titles. Although I write about a lot of classic books (more so actually about the women who wrote them) these are generally the ones I love, return to, and find contemporary comparisons with. I found Middemarch almost entirely unreadable I'm afraid 😨 (I realise this may test our friendship, but hopefully you can forgive me🙏).
I think you did your reading of classics as an adult too, you are just ahead of the trend, Kate!
I am loving Anna K. and nervous about Middlemarch. I keep telling myself that if Haley can't make me like it, nobody will. And that it's ok to jump ship partway through. Nothing kills my reading flow like a book that drags, I am not making any sacrifices!
I did read it as an adult, yes! I haven't actually read Anna K. and have always thought I should...it's one of the few books that wasn't on any of my modules. I may have to take your lead and try that one.
Petya: I'm SO excited to read Eliot with you. I have not read Middlemarch but I fell in love with her writing in graduate school, when I read her novel "Adam Bede." and talk about a book that drags...but, I learned how to love the drag. Embrace the slog of it. We'll do the same, should we find ourselves lagging in Middlemarch. (I like to remind myself: if I trust this author, which I usually do if I buy their book in the first place, I trust that there is a reason they're describing a field of grass for six pages.)
Ok how is it that you seemingly crawl into my brain and just BRILLIANTLY articulate the mess of loose thoughts I’ve had swirling around for ages?!? I am so here for this cultural moment, and particularly appreciate that it’s happening here on Substack. I think one of the main drivers of this is exactly as you mentioned with TikTok—the sheer social media-ization of books and the bookish lifestyle. When you add in algorithms and all the pressures of capitalism to share, link, affiliate, etc., things HAVE to move quickly and change quickly. I honestly was shocked when I first started on Instagram that part of the “logic” of how things worked was posting TBR stacks and monthly reading roundups etc.—the main assumption being that these books would be read/consumed so quickly so they could then be posted about as content. And again there’s no judgement there for people who read quickly and read X number of books a month, but I think is the platform shifted towards quick clickbait content with reels and 6 second videos, there was this frantic, frenetic energy associated with reading which is the exact opposite of what I *try* to make of it.
At the same time, it opens up the whole conversation about fetishizing certain books/genres, which is something I’m trying to be more mindful of too (as a recovering book snob). I really want to challenge any kind of sense of moral hierarchies associated with reading so am trying to be mindful of that as well. Reading a classic slowly isn’t inherently “better” than, say, reading 5 romances quickly. I think again though it all comes back to the habits we cultivate and choose for our reading lives—because the desire to slow down and resist the algorithmic impulses is REAL and I am deeply feeling the exhaustion.
The other day I was at a lovely bookshop in Madrid which sells books in English and I saw there were several beautiful hardcover editions of classic works of literature. I couldn't help but think that:
1) in the past, books used to be quite expensive for lower classes, now they are not, so turning books into an aspirational "objet" that holds interesting content (the object as the work of art) makes books a lot more appealing, esp. to those not so interested in the content;
2) it is a lot cheaper for publishing houses to bring out new editions of works which are in public domain, so they don't have to pay the writer and they just focus (again) on the book as object.
As for George Eliot, indeed Middlemarch is worth every bit of it, but so does Adam Bede, her first novel, which is my favourite of hers.
I love this "19th Century Wives Under Pressure" collection. I read those all within a couple of years of each other maybe 12-15 years ago and love them all. The discourse is definitely making me want to pick up my well worn editions for another reread...
Thinking about classics that are "weirder, hornier, and funnier than I'd expected," I read Ulysses last Fall (with lots of help) and was surprised to find all of those things were also true about it and made it more pleasurable to read, the way it subverted my expectations from the beginning. The way this very serious book did not seem to be so serious after all and that that was the point of it all.
Hi! I am SO curious who/what helped you through Ulysses. I have tried and been unsuccessful a handful of times. Did you find a resource you loved to get through it??
I wonder why there is no Substack slow read of Ulysses. Middlemarch and War and Peace and Anna K are challenging (I am reading Middlemarch currently) but none are as challenging to me as Ulysses.
For me, Substack has created a serious FOMO with group reads. On my bedside table right now are A Tale of Two Cities (Close Reads), Anna Karenina (Read the Classics with Henry Eliot), The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky Book Club), The Space Trilogy (Reading Revisited), and The Divine Comedy (Genius &Ink). I'm also in for Middlemarch (Closely Reading) and To the Lighthouse (Wolfish!), and although I've already read War & Peace with Simon Haisell, I'm reading his 2025 lineup starting with The Siege of Krishnapur.
I had to physically restrain myself from several others, including those being led by Jeremy Anderberg and Matthew Long.
Agreed, it’s tough to choose which book clubs to join because I don’t want to miss out!!! Currently committed to War & Peace with Simon Haisell and considering starting P&P any day now with Haley. Matthew Long’s Homer read-along was sooo tempting but I just don’t think I can commit to it this year.
Jennifer: just hopping in to say I hope you'll just us in Pride & Prejudice whenever you're ready!! We're just into week 2 now—plenty of time to catch up!
Ah yes it's very hard to resist being drawn in! Simon's W&P was my gateway drug; now I'm doing the Anna Karenina and the Divine Comedy. This corner of Substack has been really such a positive influence: there's no way I'd be reading these amazing works without it.
Thank you for including Introvert Drawing Club! Unrelated: May I have permission to draw you tomorrow in our People of Substack session? I'm happy to take a photo from one of you posts!
I have nothing to say except I love all the classics you are diving into this year. Middlemarch is incredible! Madame Bovary! Anna Karenina! They're all so spectacular and wise and fun.
Lauren who posted above just published a post on Madame Bovary and had me so so excited about reading it again. Apparently the Lydia Davis translation is the one to get... the thought of Lydia Davis translating Madame Bovary makes me giggle in delight.
This piece is the first thing I see when I open Substack... please go look at the note I posted last night lol.
I have almost completely stopped posting on Instagram even though I know it would be good for my Substack readership because I don't feel they are my people any longer. My people are here, reading Middlemarch (in May with Haley).
The "problem" with reading slow is that A). it means less raw material for the content machine, which Substack can perpetuate, but I think we all agree/hope that it doesn't, and B). it means you must have something intelligent to say about the thing you read slow, which can be intimidating. I am ready to rise to the challenge, and it feels like the greater community is too, which is a DELIGHT!
I had the same experience in reverse, I opened Substack this morning and saw your note. I laughed out loud. We are so on the pulse. 😂
I highly suspect that I will have nothing intelligent to contribute to the classics discourse... other than keep telling old people that it's not too late to read them and, in fact, it's better to read them as a grown ass person. Which, honestly, is part of the attraction to me. Participate in a collective reading experience without feeling the pressure to have a hot take. Just read the damn books, enjoy them. The end.
The reason why I started reading Middlemarch was because I was seeing it everywhere! I thought it was a sign I needed to read it. The sentences are beautiful and fun, but the story itself/characters don’t excite me. I keep abandoning it for other books. I told Natalie I needed something with an edge, dark and aching this winter. I think I’m going to put Middlemarch on ice and join you women in May with Haley! 💥💗
A very of the moment piece Petya - well done on turning this over so quickly! I am now also being struck by the fever that I need to read Middlemarch. How convenient that Haley is reading it in May..... (its a sign). The push for classics on here is really beautiful I love it - and makes so much sense as a genuine response to the never ending slew of books that get published every day!! We all love books, but we don't love being bombarded with them! I feel like my classic a month goal came a year too early and would be much more timely now 😂
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on AK! My friend read it last year and did give it high praise so I am considering reading it too! I am not sure how many classic tomes I can take in a year - 2 might be a perfect amount!
LOL ... I know, like I didn't have my January reads post almost done... I had to make myself lose a little sleep. Seeing that Catherine Lacey note is what made me want to write it.
It's such a beautiful thing... a community of actual readers, many of us having grown up online with several less successful attempts of being part of a book-thing online. With all its issues, I think that the Substack format IS partially responsible for creating this magic.
I am reading Middlemarch with Haley, too. Her pace is just right for me. Anna K. with Henry E. is spread over the course of 14 months... which may start to drag ... I am trying to stay on schedule but (because I like it) I suspect at some point I may just want to finish it. It is very dramatic from the start - opens with a couple fighting over the husband's infidelity. 🙏😂🍿🍿
It's a siiiiiiiign!!!! I'm so excited to slow read it together.
I would love to join a group reading Middlemarch- I tried it on my own last year and failed- is there one? I am already part of Simon Haisell's War and Peace Slow read and it is great for accountability.
Check out Haley Larsen's Close Reading Substack. She is leading a Middlemarch read starting in May. I have done two read-alongs with her so far and both have been great experiences.
If you’re in the UK the brilliant BBC adaptation with Juliet Aubrey as Dorothea, and Rudus Sewell as Laidlaw is currently available on iPlayer.
you can also email NYRB and they’ll let you buy the past recordings of Merve Emre’s lecture series on it!
!!!!! WOW
Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
Oh yes! Do come join us for Middlemarch in May! (And for any of our reads before that, if you'd like! We're just getting into Pride & Prejudice right now!)
self promotion makes me physically ill but i do think slowly reading, reading the classics mixed in with contemporary fiction, has sort of been the main point of my whole blog so far??? agree with everything you’ve said here, alongside with the slow realization in later adulthood that i do not have to try and reinvent the wheel every day. we can analyze the wheel and appreciate what it’s doing (sorry for this metaphor).
also middlemarch is an all-time great novel, one of the true masterpieces, of the “i’m so glad i read this as an adult” tier.
Please! Promote away!
I hope people don't feel offended or excluded when I say this, but the reason I brought up the age of the Substack user-base for that exact reason -- the joyous realization that so many excellent books were lost on our youth! We not only have time to read them but also can actually appreciate them more fully as adults with actual lived experience to connect them to.
When I read The Awakening last year, I just kept thinking... how is this profound story of midlife despair and womanhood in any way relatable to high school kids (when most people read it)?!
Are you reading any classics now or soon?
i quite literally just posted about reading madame bovary moments ago, so feeling very aligned with the discourse!
I love Madame Bovary! It will be a reread for me and I am so curious about that experience. She is such a mess, I love her so much.
An interesting piece, Petya. I have also been a bit surprised by all the classic book clubs on here, and I think you have tapped into something; the fact that people are yearning for deeper insights and reading experiences.
I am perhaps not the target audience for such groups, however, as a recovering student of English literature over several years, I often find myself moving more towards reading contemporary titles. Although I write about a lot of classic books (more so actually about the women who wrote them) these are generally the ones I love, return to, and find contemporary comparisons with. I found Middemarch almost entirely unreadable I'm afraid 😨 (I realise this may test our friendship, but hopefully you can forgive me🙏).
I think you did your reading of classics as an adult too, you are just ahead of the trend, Kate!
I am loving Anna K. and nervous about Middlemarch. I keep telling myself that if Haley can't make me like it, nobody will. And that it's ok to jump ship partway through. Nothing kills my reading flow like a book that drags, I am not making any sacrifices!
I did read it as an adult, yes! I haven't actually read Anna K. and have always thought I should...it's one of the few books that wasn't on any of my modules. I may have to take your lead and try that one.
Petya: I'm SO excited to read Eliot with you. I have not read Middlemarch but I fell in love with her writing in graduate school, when I read her novel "Adam Bede." and talk about a book that drags...but, I learned how to love the drag. Embrace the slog of it. We'll do the same, should we find ourselves lagging in Middlemarch. (I like to remind myself: if I trust this author, which I usually do if I buy their book in the first place, I trust that there is a reason they're describing a field of grass for six pages.)
Ok how is it that you seemingly crawl into my brain and just BRILLIANTLY articulate the mess of loose thoughts I’ve had swirling around for ages?!? I am so here for this cultural moment, and particularly appreciate that it’s happening here on Substack. I think one of the main drivers of this is exactly as you mentioned with TikTok—the sheer social media-ization of books and the bookish lifestyle. When you add in algorithms and all the pressures of capitalism to share, link, affiliate, etc., things HAVE to move quickly and change quickly. I honestly was shocked when I first started on Instagram that part of the “logic” of how things worked was posting TBR stacks and monthly reading roundups etc.—the main assumption being that these books would be read/consumed so quickly so they could then be posted about as content. And again there’s no judgement there for people who read quickly and read X number of books a month, but I think is the platform shifted towards quick clickbait content with reels and 6 second videos, there was this frantic, frenetic energy associated with reading which is the exact opposite of what I *try* to make of it.
At the same time, it opens up the whole conversation about fetishizing certain books/genres, which is something I’m trying to be more mindful of too (as a recovering book snob). I really want to challenge any kind of sense of moral hierarchies associated with reading so am trying to be mindful of that as well. Reading a classic slowly isn’t inherently “better” than, say, reading 5 romances quickly. I think again though it all comes back to the habits we cultivate and choose for our reading lives—because the desire to slow down and resist the algorithmic impulses is REAL and I am deeply feeling the exhaustion.
Also sorry for the novel 🤪
The other day I was at a lovely bookshop in Madrid which sells books in English and I saw there were several beautiful hardcover editions of classic works of literature. I couldn't help but think that:
1) in the past, books used to be quite expensive for lower classes, now they are not, so turning books into an aspirational "objet" that holds interesting content (the object as the work of art) makes books a lot more appealing, esp. to those not so interested in the content;
2) it is a lot cheaper for publishing houses to bring out new editions of works which are in public domain, so they don't have to pay the writer and they just focus (again) on the book as object.
As for George Eliot, indeed Middlemarch is worth every bit of it, but so does Adam Bede, her first novel, which is my favourite of hers.
I love this "19th Century Wives Under Pressure" collection. I read those all within a couple of years of each other maybe 12-15 years ago and love them all. The discourse is definitely making me want to pick up my well worn editions for another reread...
Thinking about classics that are "weirder, hornier, and funnier than I'd expected," I read Ulysses last Fall (with lots of help) and was surprised to find all of those things were also true about it and made it more pleasurable to read, the way it subverted my expectations from the beginning. The way this very serious book did not seem to be so serious after all and that that was the point of it all.
Hi! I am SO curious who/what helped you through Ulysses. I have tried and been unsuccessful a handful of times. Did you find a resource you loved to get through it??
I wonder why there is no Substack slow read of Ulysses. Middlemarch and War and Peace and Anna K are challenging (I am reading Middlemarch currently) but none are as challenging to me as Ulysses.
For me, Substack has created a serious FOMO with group reads. On my bedside table right now are A Tale of Two Cities (Close Reads), Anna Karenina (Read the Classics with Henry Eliot), The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky Book Club), The Space Trilogy (Reading Revisited), and The Divine Comedy (Genius &Ink). I'm also in for Middlemarch (Closely Reading) and To the Lighthouse (Wolfish!), and although I've already read War & Peace with Simon Haisell, I'm reading his 2025 lineup starting with The Siege of Krishnapur.
I had to physically restrain myself from several others, including those being led by Jeremy Anderberg and Matthew Long.
Agreed, it’s tough to choose which book clubs to join because I don’t want to miss out!!! Currently committed to War & Peace with Simon Haisell and considering starting P&P any day now with Haley. Matthew Long’s Homer read-along was sooo tempting but I just don’t think I can commit to it this year.
Jennifer: just hopping in to say I hope you'll just us in Pride & Prejudice whenever you're ready!! We're just into week 2 now—plenty of time to catch up!
thank you so much Haley!! I would love to! I’m just not sure how much I’m able to take on as I have newborn twins 😅
Ah yes it's very hard to resist being drawn in! Simon's W&P was my gateway drug; now I'm doing the Anna Karenina and the Divine Comedy. This corner of Substack has been really such a positive influence: there's no way I'd be reading these amazing works without it.
Thank you for including Introvert Drawing Club! Unrelated: May I have permission to draw you tomorrow in our People of Substack session? I'm happy to take a photo from one of you posts!
BETH!!! Hilarious and yes! Mila will be jealous!
I can't have a jealous Mila! I'll make sure to choose a photo that includes her. :) Can't wait to draw you two! <3
She is always lurking in the background. I think in the last photo I shared she was yawning.
I have nothing to say except I love all the classics you are diving into this year. Middlemarch is incredible! Madame Bovary! Anna Karenina! They're all so spectacular and wise and fun.
Lauren who posted above just published a post on Madame Bovary and had me so so excited about reading it again. Apparently the Lydia Davis translation is the one to get... the thought of Lydia Davis translating Madame Bovary makes me giggle in delight.
Yes, that's the one I read when I re-read it!
This piece is the first thing I see when I open Substack... please go look at the note I posted last night lol.
I have almost completely stopped posting on Instagram even though I know it would be good for my Substack readership because I don't feel they are my people any longer. My people are here, reading Middlemarch (in May with Haley).
The "problem" with reading slow is that A). it means less raw material for the content machine, which Substack can perpetuate, but I think we all agree/hope that it doesn't, and B). it means you must have something intelligent to say about the thing you read slow, which can be intimidating. I am ready to rise to the challenge, and it feels like the greater community is too, which is a DELIGHT!
I had the same experience in reverse, I opened Substack this morning and saw your note. I laughed out loud. We are so on the pulse. 😂
I highly suspect that I will have nothing intelligent to contribute to the classics discourse... other than keep telling old people that it's not too late to read them and, in fact, it's better to read them as a grown ass person. Which, honestly, is part of the attraction to me. Participate in a collective reading experience without feeling the pressure to have a hot take. Just read the damn books, enjoy them. The end.
That is very true. I read Anna Karenina at 20 and all I remember is a lot of trains. What a waste!
Omg lol I just wrote a note about this! Loving the synergy right now ❤️🔥
The reason why I started reading Middlemarch was because I was seeing it everywhere! I thought it was a sign I needed to read it. The sentences are beautiful and fun, but the story itself/characters don’t excite me. I keep abandoning it for other books. I told Natalie I needed something with an edge, dark and aching this winter. I think I’m going to put Middlemarch on ice and join you women in May with Haley! 💥💗
Yay!!! YES PLEASE!
🥳💗😍
Loved this.
Slow reading on Substack might be the first and only time I'm in with the zeitgeist. Thanks Petya!
This made me laugh out loud. Same.
Us nerds are having our moment, finally.
I love everything about this! 😍👏🏻