Labour leader and firebrand politician Jeremy Corbyn has been involved in a live Q&A over at Mumsnet today, talking about all manner of things including biscuits, and books! We think there’s not much that goes together better than biscuits and books, but Corbyn doesn’t agree, citing health reasons for reservations over biscuits.
When pushed, the politician said he’d eat a shortbread, if forced, and went on to discuss his favourite books, and literature. Mumsnet asked him to identify the book he has never tired of reading, and he mentioned two titles. Here’s what he said:
“Really hard choice as I love books and reading. I’ve just re-read Things Fall Apart, but I think the prize has to go to Ulysses on the grounds that it’s very hard to understand the first time and doesn’t get much easier on the third or fourth reading of it. I first read it as my companion on a complicated series of trains travelling from London to Marrakech.”
Ulysses is quite the volume by all accounts, I have to confess, I haven’t read it myself but Corbyn’s summary seems to encapsulate perfectly what people think of it. Whether having to read something four times qualifies as a book you don’t tire of reading, we’re not sure, I think once might be enough for me to admit defeat!
The second book mentioned is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, this book keeps coming up on suggestions and mentioned in the For Reading Addicts community, and now Corbyn is citing it too. It’s another I haven’t read, but I think unlike Joyce’s Ulysses, I will try to rectify that this year.
We’ve just concentrated on the important bits of the discussion, like books and biscuits but if you’d like to read the rest, you can do so here.
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