How to Read a Book and Other Essays

How Should One Read a Book? is an essay by Virginia Woolf that, every time I read it, I seem to learn more about myself as a reader, both good and bad. The rating is for the essay itself, I refuse to mark the book down because of just so-so afterword and a decent introduction.

The wonderful thing about an essay, especially one that was originally, in a slightly altered form, a speech, is that it can be read as speaking to us now without much concern for placing it within the speaker's life and it can be read with an emphasis on what and who might have been behind some of the commentary. In exceptional essays such as this both readings are rewarding.

I don't want my initial comments about the introduction and afterword to be taken as show more harshly as they likely sound. I found the introduction to be fine, nothing particularly special but probably helpful for those with no knowledge of Woolf. The afterword I just found uninteresting. It did not speak to me and I found the tone to be off-putting. Which means nothing more than it didn't appeal to me or add anything to my reading of Woolf. You results may vary.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

An interesting meditation on the act of reading. Reading as an independent, individualistic process, but which can also come full circle by being synthesizing and bigger than one book itself over time and with experience. Seems like it presages intertextuality.

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. During her lifetime Virginia Woolf was considered by critics to be a minor writer and quite often the reviews of her books at the time they were published were quite harsh. The essay How Should One Read A Book was originally a lecture she gave in January 1926 at the Hayes Court Common School. It was later revised and published a couple of times but this is I believe the first time it has been published on it’s own and not as part of a collection. It’s an essay that celebrates reading literature, making up ones own mind about what one reads and how books change us when we read them. I feel it’s meant to be read aloud as that is how it seemed to flow show more best when I read it. While quite short it’s a book that I think will find a home in my library to be re-read often. Publishing Date: October 12, 2020 #HowShouldOneReadABook #VirginiaWoolf #LaurenceKingPublishing #AdultNonFiction #bookstagram #bookstagrammer show less

The first thing I liked about this book was the title of the book. Being a reader from the from the deepest core of my heart, how could I ignore this book. Especially when it is Virginia Woolf who wrote this book.
How should One Read a Book is an essay in which Woolf talked about the correct way of reading a book, how could one reader connect to the writer just by reading the book. She explores the lives the of different author of Victorian London and reaches to the reader like no one esle did.
I really liked the book. It is a short read but a pretty amazing as well. Totally loved it.

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