The Books We Love: A recap of Inspire’s Favourite Reads panel event

At 7pm, the panellists took to the stage. Dr Becky Cullen, of Notts TV Book Club fame, led the evening alongside Nottingham’s Nature Poet Laureate Cara Thompson and Director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature Hannah Trevarthen. Introductions were made, with plenty of enthusiastic “ooooh!”s from the audience — as well as laughter when Becky revealed the panellists’ top claims to fame: their roles in their childhood school plays!

When the conversation turned to books, it began with a surprisingly important question: where do you like to read?

For Hannah, the answer was essentially anywhere. She described herself as “agnostic” when it comes to reading spots, although there is something particularly soothing about a coffee shop — being absorbed in another world while still physically present in the room, a “there but not there” experience.

Cara agreed that coffee shops have their appeal but shared a love for creating the perfect ambience: a cosy living room, perhaps, with the sounds of a campfire in the background.

From there, the panellists turned to Inspire’s Favourite Reads shortlist — 30 books curated by Inspire librarians, combining staff recommendations with some of the most-borrowed titles across the county. All three appreciated the variety of the list, with Cara particularly noting that book lists can lean heavily towards the classics and welcoming the inclusion of so many contemporary titles.

Becky highlighted The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, praising its beautiful, poetic language and its exploration of the aftermath of the Second World War “through a crack in the door”. Audience members agreed it was thought-provoking, with one describing it as upsetting while admiring its originality.

Hannah’s shortlist highlight was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a book with special significance for her family. The audience was firmly behind its inclusion, while Hannah’s memorable quote - “I am so hip I can’t see past my pelvis” - raised plenty of laughs.

Cara and Becky both championed Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, praising its unusual concept, mythology, diary-entry format and little Nottingham Easter eggs. Their advice to anyone starting it? Stick with it. It has a strange beginning, but, as Becky put it, “it’s worth getting past the albatrosses!”

Becky also discussed James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from James’ perspective. She praised the way Everett plays with language and rewrites the original narrative and history.

Fantasy also received plenty of love, with all three panellists sharing their enthusiasm for J. R. R. Tolkien. Cara had recently tackled The Lord of the Rings after first discovering the story through the films, describing it as “a feat of literature” and “just magical”. Hannah remembered reading The Hobbit with her mum, while Becky admitted she had initially refused to read Tolkien, believing it wasn’t for her. After discovering the books in her 40s, she now firmly agrees that their humour, darkness and touching relationships earn them a place on the shortlist.

Romance, too, got some love (pardon the pun). Hannah suggested that the genre’s appeal lies partly in hope - the longing for love and safety, and the possibility that if things can work out for characters in books, perhaps they can for us too. Marian Keyes’ Again, Rachel was highlighted as an example, with its exploration of a relationship revisited 20 years later. The panel also admired romance’s ability to reflect real life in all its messy glory, despite the fact that, as Cara noted, “romance isn’t always looked at with the same reverence” as other genres.

The first half closed with a video featuring Inspire staff sharing their own recommendations from the shortlist, including The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt and The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.

The second half brought perhaps the most moving discussion of the evening: what does reading mean to you, and how would you fight for it if it were taken away?

For Hannah, reading is deeply tied to family. As the daughter of a librarian and granddaughter of a voracious reader, books have always been part of her life. She shared how she inherited her grandmother’s reading journals, spanning years, and explained that reading creates curiosity, empathy and connection. “I’d probably have a big cry and stamp my feet!” she joked.

Cara described reading as possibility: the ability to travel beyond your own experience, discover worlds you could never otherwise access and find words for feelings you thought there were none for. For her, books speak to our identities and help create a sense of self.

For Becky, libraries have played a similar role. She fondly remembered escaping to Beeston Library as a child for some solace from her two younger siblings. Books about time have always felt poignant to her, and A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is particularly memorable. Having stayed as an adult at the house in which the book is set, she described the meeting of real life and fiction as emotional, and akin to coming home.

The evening concluded with a celebration of short stories and the work of author and illustrator Shaun Tan, whose wordless The Arrival was praised for exploring migration and alienation and demonstrating how powerful storytelling can be without words.

And perhaps that was the perfect note to finish on. Because throughout the evening, one message was clear: reading is so much more than turning pages. It’s memory, escape, identity, connection and curiosity — and, most importantly, it’s something better shared.

More of our panellists' recommendations:

Becky recommends:
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Mammals, I Think We Are Called by Giselle Leeb

Cara recommends:
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola
Miguel Street by V. S. Naipaul
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Hannah recommends:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
George Smiley series by John le Carré
Short stories by Kevin Barry
Short stories by Breece D'J Pancake
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter