I found this book interesting to read, yet this was maybe the hardest Woolf book I have read. This contains samples from Woolf's dairy selected by her husband after her death that dealt with her writing process. If you are looking for entries about her personal life you won't really find them here (maybe a few here and there).

Maybe the hardest part about reading this for me was at times you could tell she had mental illness. Some entries seemed to be all over the place. You would have to read some days over again to figure out what she is saying. Now this isn't a bad thing? This is her dairy, no editors, so I was expecting some raw material. I wasn't expecting that she focused too much on what other people thought of her work and that at times she put herself down and other times she gave herself high praise.

I loved the fact she read so much. I expect most authors to read a ton of the classics, but at times she seemed to be reading 3 books a week. For me this is impressive because she never when to school as a child and had no real form of education. Obviously reading taught her things that other people didn't teach her. This kind of shows you the power of reading. Yet reading too much also made her think she could do better with her writing.

The other interesting par of this diary I found was the mentions of Hitler and the Second World War. I know she has talked several other times about her and not liking war. Three Guineas and Mrs. Dalloway cover that topic. Yet she doesn't really talk about Hitler or the Nazis in her books that I recall. I'd never put the two together. Obviously she hated Hitler and the war. I still wonder if the war had something to do with her suicide.

If you have read Woolf before this is a must read, but if you haven't read anything by Woolf, I'd save this for last. I might turn you off with her writing. I kind of wish this included her last entry before she killed herself, would have been interesting to read. However, as much as I like Woolf I doubt I'll ever want to read her full dairy. I liked this, but it was messy at times. Woolf life was one beautiful mess. ( )

A fantastic view on how an author splits her time between writing and being a wife, sister, friend, and neighbor. ( )

Anything and everything about Virginia Woolf is fascinating to me.

Anything and everything about Virginia Woolf is fascinating to me. ( )

Oh, I want this edition too. ( )