I know what you’ve been thinking: it’s been too long since the last Ruffian pod! Well, it’s back. Earlier this week I sat down with returning guest James Marriott, of The Times, to talk about our year in reading. I published my Top Ten reads of 2025 a few weeks back. You can read James’s list on his excellent Substack, Cultural Capital.James is currently hard at work on a book about the decline of literacy so doing this pod was a welcome break from, er, writing and reading.This is Part I of a two-part conversation. Part II, which will be for paid subscribers only, arrives tomorrow. In that one, we talk about some of the books we didn’t like and discuss what kinds of thing stop us from reading a book.

I hope you’ll get some last-minute present ideas here. Enjoy!

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