If I told you that my obsession with Middlemarch began with a standing Kitchen Aide mixer, you’d expect me to elaborate. It started one summer day when I was a teenager. My friend had invited me over to her house for a movie night and sleep over. Though our families had known each other since before either of our births, my friend and I had just recently reconnected with the help of a graduation party and AOL. The joys of dial up Internet.When I arrived, I was shown into the kitchen where my friend was in the midst of baking a batch of cookies with her mother. Her dad sat at the kitchen table reading an economics book, throwing in teasing remarks about our childhood antics while we all got reacquainted. It all seemed so…perfect. I was uncomfortably envious of my friend and her family. Two things in particular heightened this feeling. The gleaming navy blue standing Kitchen Aide mixer enshrined on the granite countertop. It was a recent gift to my friend, Gabby from her parents, since she was the glorified baker in the family. The other was an enormous, well-loved tome called Middlemarch, not far from the mixer, with a small scrap of paper protruding from the center of the spine, no doubt a thoughtless book marker.I had heard about this book from a few English teachers. It was said to be “the quintessential British novel” but that it was overly long, had too many characters, and was overall a political novel. This too was said of other books like Anna Karenina and War and Peace (not the English novel part, but the other stuff). It was such a discouragement! Comments like these made the books seem almost beyond my reach and comprehension.I asked about the book, wondering if Gabby was reading it for her advanced English class, and was relieved when her mom, Linda said that it was she that was reading it, and for the fifth time nonetheless. It was her favorite book, she said, and I learned that she was also a high school English teacher. When we started discussing it, and my love of Thomas Hardy, everyone else just disappeared. She took me into her study, and I had a look around her library. I was overwhelmed that Gabby could have parents that loved reading and encouraged their children to read too. Not only that, but they loved classic literature right along with Danielle Steel and James Michener.Looking back now, I realize it was probably the first bookish discussion that wasn’t penned in an essay for my teachers’ eyes alone or some other assignment. It was refreshing. From that day on, I vowed to myself that I too would one day own a standing Kitchen Aide mixer (because what kitchen is complete without one?), and I would undertake the reading of Middlemarch.It’s essential that you know this back story because it would explain why I own three Hardcopy editions, two kindle editions, and an audio edition of the book. It’s almost as if I wanted to prevent any excuses I might have for putting it off, and I have for fifteen years. That that I’ve finally read it feels like such a huge accomplishment!I can say with certainty that up to today, this is my favorite book. I adore Dorothea. She is such a unique character, often described as an odd type of woman; one the is both reverenced and respected as a man. I also admire Mary Garth and her father, Caleb, my two other favorite characters. The rest of the townsfolk that round out the novel create a tasty gumbo of gossip and family histories. While politics and reform had a bearing on many of the storylines, it wasn’t difficult to understand with the help of a few online tools.On the whole and in my humble opinion, this is a novel of marriage–its disappointments, challenges, and triumphs. It’s about the sacrifices people make and the mistakes they make in choosing suitable mates. Having made a poor decision in my previous marriage, so much about this book touched me deeply. Not that one has to be married, unhappily married or divorced to appreciate the book. So many of the genial characters where singletons, and served as a sort of control group, who although having their own share of difficulties, were still quite happy.“Marriage, which has been bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic–the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years a climax and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.”A friend’s review urged that one should really take their time in reading this book, because once finished, the characters would be greatly missed. I’ve already felt a strong twinge of sadness at saying goodbye, even if only temporarily. Like Gabby’s mom, Linda…I’m sure I’ll revisit this book quite frequently. As for the Kitchen Aide mixer? I’ve never been able to excuse the purchase because I don’t bake a lot…but it’s still up there on my bucket list, along with “Become a finalist on The Great British Baking Show.”