THREAD: Suggest a slow read for 2026

The Footnotes & Tangents Common Room, May 2025

Book guides | Slow reads | Library | Chat | Notes
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Vanitas Still Life by Evert Collier, 1662. Source.

Hello fellow readers!

This monthly thread is usually a little perk for paid subscribers. But today I want to open it up to everyone, because I need your suggestions!

• What would you like to read with us in 2026?

Footnotes and Tangents is an experiment in slow reading, now in its third year. In 2023, we read War and Peace. In 2024, we read War and Peace and Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy. This year, people are taking part in re-runs of both these read-alongs, and new slow reads:

• The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell (finished in March)

• A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel (started this month)

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (starts 29 Sept)

• The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (starts 3 Nov)

Footnotes and Tangents is an invitation to slow down, listen to a book with greater intention, and share that experience with companion readers. I am interested in exploring books that we may find intimidating, or those we are at risk of rushing through without fully taking them in.

• Do you have a favourite book that rewards the slow reader?

• Is there a book you want to read but are intimidated to start?

I have a list of books I would like to feature on Footnotes and Tangents. This list includes:

• Regeneration by Pat Barker

• Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown

• The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel

• Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

• Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

• Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

• The Inheritors by William Golding

• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

• Samarkand by Amin Maalouf

• Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue

There are plenty more, but that’s a taste of the books I would like to return to with a careful and curious eye.

But I want your suggestions too.

• What books do you think would make a great slow read?

In 2026, I’ll aim to make a mix of your picks and my most beloved books. If a book isn’t my jam, you can use the comments and this community to find others who would like to read with you.

Also, what are you reading?

In these threads, I usually ask what you’ve been reading this month. I re-read A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA by Ursula K Le Guin and listened to THE CORNER THAT HELD THEM by Sylvia Townsend Warner and THE INHERITORS by William Golding.

Yesterday, I began listening to IS A RIVER ALIVE? by Robert Macfarlane. I have a personal connection to the Ecuadorian river Rob visits in the first section of the book, and was moved to write about it on Notes last night:

Now it’s over to you.

Let us know what you’re reading in the comments and suggest some slow reads for 2026.

And if you can put the title in CAPS, it will help others find books they love or may be interested in.

All the best and happy, adventurous reading,

Simon