The Uncommon Reader

January's book club book - which I read in one sitting. the surmise is brilliantly simple, but the writing is sparkling and funny. The Queen discovers that there's a mobile library that arrives at the palace once a week when the corgis charge off after it. For politeness sake, she borrows a book, and then becomes an avid reader. A little late in life, maybe, a fact of which she is most aware. The progress of her reading is followed, from scatter gun beginnings to obsession. This is met with some resistance in various places, and there is a conspiracy to try and stop her - some of which backfire spectacularly! She progresses from reader to wanna be writer (and who of us has not had that thought). The sting in the tail is deliciously show more delivered, and thoroughly thought provoking.

Just brilliant, and I just know I'll be reading it again before we discuss it next month.

Yes, a re-read, but I now own a copy. Found it at the library book sale and simply had to have it. In fact I snaffled it as I was unpacking the books, that's how much I wanted it. And I'd finished it by tea-time.
We had a desert island discs conversation, but books & this is on my list. Just a sparkling good read, a simple surmise, but so well plotted that the ending takes my breath away every time.

An another re-read. In the mood for some "safe" reading and this gem, yet again, hits the spot. It's full of the most beautiful observational comment, some of it wryly funny, some of it quite poignant. The discovery of what it is to read, what it does to the person, stretches them yet can be diminishing at the same time, it's all in here. I still love the twist at the end, and the observation of the old school form of education - and how much more widely read those of the older generation seem to have been - is what struck me this time. If I were the Queen, I;d have whacked the Prime Minister over the head with a weighty handbag a long time ago!

Another re-read. I like the way that Alan Bennet captures what is probably our idea of the Queen and then subverts it ever so slightly. She starts behaving in a way that's not in keeping with out picture of her. Being late because she has her nose in a book is entirely understandable in a normal human, but it so at odds with our mental picture of the Queen that it is quite startling. And it doesn't matter how many times I read this, the whole universe of possibilities opened up by that last line still takes my breath away. Just imagine... show less

While out walking the corgis the Queen discovers the City of Westminster mobile library parked in one of the yards at Buckingham Palace, the only occupants being the driver/librarian Mr Hutchings and Norman Seakins who works in the palace kitchens. To be polite she borrows a book, a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett, and in line with her philosophy of life dutifully finishes it despite finding it very dry. Returning the next week, she finds herself borrowing The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford and so begins a love affair with reading which worries and irritates her staff, especially her over-conscientious private secretary Sir Kevin Scatchard, as once she begins to devote so much of her attention to books, she has much less attention to show more devote to the duties of being queen. A shared love of books liberates Norman from the kitchens to wait on the Queen personally, much to the irritation of the longer established staff, who manouever to get rid of him (and the books) from the Queen's life.

I love Alan Bennett's writing in general and I really love this book. I think it portrays beautifully the delights of reading: of how one book leads to another and how reading can been seen as a muscle that can be developed. The chasm between the reading world and the non-reading world is portrayed so well, for example where the Queen's equerries try to brief the people she meets about any likely conversation and warn them that:

'these days she was more likely to ask what the person was currently reading. At this most people looked blank (and sometimes panic-stricken) but nothing daunted the equerries came up with a list of suggestions. Though this meant that the Queen came away with a disproportionate notion of the popularity of Andy McNab and the near univeral affection for Joanna Trollope, no matter; at least embarrassment had been avoided.'

I should say at this point that I am a fairly ardent anti-royalist, who would vote to abolish the monarchy tomorrow if we had a referendum on the issue - not that that's at all likely of course. But that doesn't affect my love for this book which reads so much like a modern fairy tale. show less

It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn't have hobbies. ... Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to be avoided; preferences excluded people. (p. 6)

Alan Bennett's wonderful novella imagines what would happen if the Queen suddenly became an avid reader. When her much-loved corgis get loose and charge into a mobile library, Queen Elizabeth II charges in after them, and then feels an obligation to check out a book. And thus begins her obsession with reading; her discovery of great literature. Reading very quickly takes precedence over a multitude of royal obligations, sometimes causing her to be late, or creating conversational cul-de-sacs with staff and subjects alike:
Still, though reading absorbed her, show more what the Queen had not expected was the degree to which it drained her of enthusiasm for anything else. It's true that the at prospect of opening yet another swimming-baths her heart didn't exactly leap up, but even so, she had not exactly resented having to do it. ... Now she surveyed the unrelenting progression of tours, travels, and undertakings stretching years into the future only with dread. (p. 60)

Well, what avid reader hasn't felt the same way from time to time? Bennett keeps tongue firmly in cheek throughout this short book, satirizing the royals and English society. Yet he also paints an engaging portrait of the "real life" led by a public figure. The Uncommon Reader was a wonderful diversion that could be read again and again with enjoyment. show less

I avoided this book for some time, under the vague impression that it was all about how special books are, how special people who read books are, how Great Literature can change your life. I hate stuff like that. The Uncommon Reader does have that theme, but in a completely unpretentious, charming way. The Queen is a wonderful character and the book is very funny. I love how disturbed the palace staff is by the Queen's new hobby - they can't quite figure out why reading books is a problem, but are sure that it is. And, of course, as the Queen grows bored with her duties and expands her mental horizons, they are proven perfectly correct.

Die Queen, der Inbegriff von Verantwortungsbewusstsein und Pflichterfüllung! Doch dann lernt sie das Lesen lieben - und zwar das Lesen von Büchern, nicht von Regierungserklärungen oder anderen drögen Vorlagen. Je mehr sie liest umso intensiver beschäftigt sie sich mit Büchern, sodass ihre Umgebung nach und nach zu spüren beginnt, wie ihr ihre Aufgabe als Repräsentantin des British Empire immer mehr zur Last wird. Undenkbar, die Queen hat keine Lust mehr! Während das Oberhaupt der Royals in seiner neuen Leidenschaft völlig aufgeht, werden von anderer Seite Pläne geschmiedet, wie man ihr das Lesen verleiden kann.
Gerade mal 111 zu lesende Seiten hat dieses feine Büchlein, dass in einem edlen, leuchtend roten Leineneinband mit show more Silberaufdruck daherkommt. Leicht zu lesen ist es, aber dennoch so viel mehr als eine seichte Unterhaltungslektüre. Lesen bildet, das wusste die Queen schon zuvor. Doch dass auch Romane nicht nur reiner Zeitvertreib sind, erkennt sie erst nach und nach. Ihr Blickfeld weitet sich, sie beginnt die Menschen um sich herum mit anderen Augen wahrzunehmen, erkennt ihre Beweggründe und Motivationen. Allmählich wird ihr bewusst, was wichtig und unwichtig ist und hinterfragt ihr eigenes Handeln: Ist Pflichterfüllung wirklich das Wichtigste im Leben?
Ein schöneres Plädoyer für's Lesen kann es kaum geben, das dazu noch wie gewohnt von Alan Bennett in wundervoll britischer Art und Weise formuliert wurde. Ein Buch, dass BücherliebhaberInnen lieben werden - aber auch die Anderen werden ihre Freude daran haben. Einfach schön! show less

Utterly charming book about the Queen stumbling across a mobile library that visits Buckingham Palace regularly and being helped to choose reading matter by the helpful Norman. It's unusual because it shows how limited the Queen is by her very proper job which might not look like one, christening ships, knighting people, opening hospitals, hosting dinner parties and being nice to foreign politicians, but it certainly would feel like one. She escapes not from reality with a book, but into it, into our reality, how we all live.

To say more about the story would spoil this absolute gem of a book. Each facet is a carefully-polished, succinct paragraph of the best of slightly-comic writing on the surface, but there are always glints of show more Bennett's attitudes, tastes and where he would like to influence the reader with his obviously socialist stance. (Note to Americans, this is quite acceptable, and might even be praiseworthy, in Europe).

Bennett says that the reader creates the character as much as the author, which is, of course, self-evident. It is the reason why films often disappoint - the director's vision has clashed with that of the readers. That said, I would still love to see a play, a small film of this book. No one has ever written about the Queen in quite this way before: someone who would deeply like to be human and explore herself rather than being some sort of demi-god in a gilded cage of utmost comfort and deepest isolation.

In real life the Queen is supposed to have plastic containers of cereals on her breakfast table (placed there by the butler or the footman) and for holidays in a cottage in Scotland actually cooks for and washes up after the family and wears exactly what she pleases. A holiday? Not for us, oh no, she's not like us at all. show less

One hates to say too much about this charming bauble of a book for fear of impinging upon the fragile spell it casts. One can say simply that it is a tale of how history might proceed were Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom to become a dedicated and very good reader. What would she read? Where would she get her books? How would her staff react? How would her subjects react? What would the prime minister do? Would she scribble in the margins? Would she proselytize about reading? Would she begin to write?

There is no booklover who would not love to find this little tale in his Christmas stocking or as one of her Hanukkah gifts. You may find that the recipient is absent from the dishwashing after a holiday meal, reading this beautiful show more little soap bubble by the fireplace, utterly engrossed, but won't it feel good to know that your gift was so happily received? show less