A Pleasure of the Mind

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's taken me months to read this book--I've been stretching it out, not wanting it to end. Rebecca Mead writes beautifully about her life and that of George Eliot, and how books transform as well as inform one's life. You read a book in your teens and then later in life, and you're reading a different book. You read a book and then learn about the author's life--this also changes the reading experience. You read a book and more books from the period, and some history; society changes, you change. You read a book and then write about a book, and again, the book changes--in your mind and heart, which is really where the book exists, being more than words on a page. I feel privileged to have gone on this journey; it's been years since I read Middlemarch, and I don't think I'll reread it--but I'm inspired to reread some of the other classics I read as a teen.

I think it's a great success for a book to make you want to read more! And no, you don't have to have read or remember Middlemarch to read this book--in fact for modern readers, it might help to read this first. Another way Mead has done a great job with this book.

I have to say I hate the texture of the cover. It's gritty and I had to take it off to read the book.

I received a copy of the book for review from Blogging For Books.



View all my reviews