11 Comments

I am team send all the emails!

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My TBR just got a shit ton smarter.

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Fab interview. Thanks for introducing us to Henry.

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I'm a Henry Oliver fan and look forward to listening to this. Any recommendations for me - I love to read and have read classics for pleasure, including Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, Anna Karenina, and more - but I know NOTHING about Johnson. Where should I start, please? And thank you

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Rasselas perhaps is the best place. His preface to Shakespeare is amazing. Selected essays is great and you can dip. The life of pope also. Enjoy!!

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Thanks! I also made a few notes on what you said about him when I listened. Appreciate it

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I have a 5 year old daughter (and a 2 year old son) and I would love recommendations from Henry Oliver about books to buy for her (and eventually for my son). We have a few shelves of books for her but I've read them all to her too many times and I'm ready to buy a whole new shelf worth. He mentioned the children's version of Shakespeare and amazon has lots of versions so which version does he recommend? If he has anything else at all to recommend for kids --- the nerdier recommendations are preferred. Separately, I wonder if he has written about the distinction between taste and preference anywhere I can read to explore this topic further.

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And on Shakespeare, the Usborne versions of various plays are good and short enough for young confident readers to enjoy by themselves. We have also enjoyed A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream retold by Georghia Ellinas. The Book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare has good suggestions of excerpts that children can learn or just enjoy, with helpful information for parents who could do with brushing up their own Shakespeare knowledge!

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Thank you so much Catherine, I deeply appreciate these recommendations! I will consider and likely buy all of them!

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