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.
Ulysses – I’ve tried many times and never got through it.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗
The Great Gatsby.
Probably all of them because I am not big into English literature. I read a lot of self-improvement books.
Loads. All the greats.
All of them. I’m not someone who can sit down and read – I wish I could.
To be completely alone.
I cry all the time. It’s embarrassing. I mostly cry when my children perform something at school. My wife regularly says, “Do you see any other fathers weeping?” But I can’t stop myself.
I was in a restaurant with my daughter in Los Angeles and I had an accident involving a stomach upset. That was mortifying for both of us.
A review of Phèdre said – because I was quite large at the time – Toby Stephens’s Hippolytus needs to get on a StairMaster.
There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.
Never ever think that things are going to turn out all right.
Andrew Ridgeley, Charlie Higson, Romola Garai, Siobhán McSweeney, Kerry Godliman, Gregory Porter
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