the lonG reads rated from top to bottom
THE BOOKS
- MIDDLEMARCH GEORGE ELIOT 7.83
- MADAME BOVARY GUSTAVE FLAUBERT 7.37
- THE MASTER AND MARGARITA MIKHAIL BULGAKOV 7.17
- BROTHERS KARAMAZOV FYODOR DOSTOYESKI 7.00
- BLEAK HOUSE CHARLES DICKENS 7.00
- PERSUASION JANE AUSTEN 7.00
- THE WAY WE LIVE NOW ANTHONY TROLLOPE 7.00
- LA BETE HUMAINE EMILE ZOLA 6.87
- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY 6.80
- THE TRIAL. FRANZ KAFKA 6.57
- MOBY DICK HERMAN MELVILLE 6.50
- HEAT OF THE DAY ELIZABETH BOWEN 6.00
- BERLIN ALEXANDER PLATZ ALFRED DOBLIN 5.40
THE LONG READ EVENTS
Our custom upon finishing a long read is to celebrate with a special event, invariably involving lunch. Sometimes a little creativity is required in deciding upon the details, however there is always a clear link to the book, albeit slightly tenuous at times. We followed the completion of Crime and Punishment with a walking tour of Manchester entitled Reds, Revolutionaries and Real Ale exploring the Manchester of Engels and the poverty and destitution he described, reflecting the Russia of Dostoyevsky. La Bete Humaine was celebrated with a trip to the Railway museum at York linking to the centrality of the train in Zola. It was of course followed by lunch in one of York's famous haunted pubs. Trollope's the Way We Live Now involved a tour of Trollope's London with a Trollope Society guide with lunch in a splendid pub in Shepherds Market. Nuneaton proved a step too far for Middlemarch so Knutsford did a great job as a stand in period market town with a side trip to Mrs Gaskell's house and of course a lengthy lunch. The Master and Margarita was celebrated with an excellent lunch at a Polish restaurant in Manchester (Ok Moscow would have been more appropriate but its a long way and we were worried that Satan might show up again) whose flavoured vodkas were as popular as the book.
