Virginia Woolf - The Common Reader Volume 1

[Ally]

Hello all,

Welcome to the new reading category for September.

Once you have read this month's choice please pop back here and let us know what you thought.

Happy reading...

Ally

[Jan C]

Picked it up from the library yesterday. My first time to take books out from the library in decades. I limited myself to three books.

Mine combines the First and Second Series in one volume.

Looks good so far, although I'm not very far into it.

[Andreea]

I started reading it this afternoon and decided I'll continue reading one essay per afternoon until I finish it. At first I thought it'll be hard to not skip over essays about books I didn't read, but after reading the first chapter about The Paston Letters and Chaucer, I've realized that I was wrong because Woolf's prose is just too enchanting. It made me realize how by deeming a writer's personal life irrelevant to our interpretation of the work itself, modern criticism has made reading a far less intimate process for modern readers. Next time I'm going to pick up Chaucer, I'm going to think both of Chaucer himself as a human being and of the many many generations of men and women who have read Chaucer in comfortless rooms with the wind blowing and the smoke stinging, instead of such cold irrelevant abstractions as the major themes and symbols in The Canterbury Tales.

By the way, both editions are available for free on Project Gutenberg.

[Jan C]

I had to return my volume of this to the library before I finished it.

Got it in the mail today from Borders.

Doesn't look like we ever did much discussing, though. I recall that I was quite interested in it but had too many books and too little time.

Now it has joined the rank to too many books.

[Ellen]

Jan C wrote: "I had to return my volume of this to the library before I finished it.

Got it in the mail today from Borders.

Doesn't look like we ever did much discussing, though. I recall that I was quite..."

Hi, Jan,

I never can decide which I like the best: Woolf's fiction, essays, criticism, or what! I enjoyed both of the "Common Readers" very much. What's fun, too, is trying to track down some of the books Woolf reviewed in "The Common Readers" and reading them oneself to see if one agrees with Woolf's assessment of them. I hope you'll post more about what you think as you read through your copy.