Chris McCausland: Which book do you still mean to read, and why has it stayed on your list?

The question

Which book do you still mean to read, and why has it stayed on your list?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

To Kill a Mockingbird – I was meant to read it for an exam and I didn’t and I cheated. I was allowed to use a laptop to type my answers because I couldn’t see my writing, so I hid an electronic copy of the book on the laptop.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Mentioned in this answer

Book To Kill a Mockingbird · Harper Lee

Others on this question

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Andrew Ridgeley

Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, which was one of the set texts for my English literature A-level. I have almost finished it.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 December 2024 source ↗

Romola Garai

I’ve never read any Proust.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 September 2024 source ↗

Pauline Black

Nineteen Eighty-Four. I always meant to read it before 1984, and once 1984 had passed I didn’t see the point.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗

Ciarán Hinds

Ulysses by James Joyce, but I might make a start next week – or the week after that …

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 July 2025 source ↗

More from Chris McCausland

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Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question How would you sum yourself up in three words? Identity & self

Hard-working, resilient, irritating.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

My college years when I was 17 to 19, before the responsibilities of adulthood, just doing the things that I was good at and liked – computers, maths, further maths (I was a geek).

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

When I was losing my sight, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I went into an undertaker’s thinking it was a barber’s. I asked the undertaker whether he had many waiting.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗