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The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan…
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The Uncommon Reader: A Novella (original 2006; edition 2008)

by Alan Bennett

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5,7325701,750 (3.92)786
In this deliciously funny novella that celebrates the pleasure of reading, the Uncommon reader is none other than Her Majesty the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (J.R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett, and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people such as the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world, and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny. With the poignant and mischievous wit of The history boys, England's best loved author revels in the power of literature to change even the most uncommon reader's life.… (more)
Member:jimhart3000
Title:The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
Authors:Alan Bennett
Info:Picador (2008), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 128 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:early reviewers, read in 2009

Work Information

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (Author) (2006)

  1. 90
    84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (teelgee)
  2. 60
    Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (fannyprice, _Zoe_)
  3. 52
    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Going in to the bookmobile to apologize for the disturbance created by one of her corgis, Queen Elizabeth II feels it would only be polite to check out a book. When she returns it, she checks out another . . . and then another. One of her pages becomes her abettor in the matter of securing books and reading them. Thus begins an amusing but also thought-provoking saga of how reading can change a person's habits and even outlook.… (more)
  4. 20
    Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon (smallbrownbushbird)
  5. 20
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (raulvilar)
  6. 10
    Talking Heads by Alan Bennett (akfarrar)
    akfarrar: Both these books explore the byways of characters whilst remaining unsentimental. They both expose weaknesses in modern British society if not in humanity. There is a wit in both and a degree of black humour.
  7. 21
    Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (wisemetis)
  8. 10
    Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn (chazzard)
  9. 00
    The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (suzanney)
  10. 00
    The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett (jannis)
  11. 00
    The Last Reader by David Toscana (Cecilturtle)
  12. 00
    Mist by Miguel de Unamuno (albavirtual)
    albavirtual: También sobre libros y lecturas, pero sobre todo sobre el juego de la creación literaria, y sobre como los personajes de una novela quieren influir sobre el creador de la misma ¡¡¡¡¡¡
  13. 00
    Soft in the Head by Marie-Sabine Roger (albavirtual)
  14. 01
    The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Brimming with quirky Britishness, these novels take on the transformative powers of doing something different. While the more humorous, satirical Uncommon Reader imagines the Queen as an increasingly sophisticated reader, the more reflective Unlikely Pilgrimage is moving and poignant.… (more)
  15. 03
    The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco (Alixtii)
    Alixtii: Both books having writers getting meta about the nature of writing and reading as a protagonist goes through a process of reading very (and I mean very) many books. Both are written with wit and insight, although Eco's book is better.
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» See also 786 mentions

English (515)  Spanish (13)  Italian (10)  Dutch (9)  German (7)  French (5)  Danish (5)  Catalan (4)  Swedish (3)  Norwegian (1)  Thingamabrarian (the ideal language) (1)  All languages (573)
Showing 1-5 of 515 (next | show all)
Despite my innate prejudice against UK royal fawning, this is quite a charming book about the power of books when HRH, the Queen aka Elizabeth Windsor, discovers the pleasures of reading books.
Books have enriched my life in a way that one could never have expected. But books can only take me so far and now I think it is time that from being a reader I become, or try to become, a writer.

It’s a quick read with some moments of wry humour and a surprise ending. ( )
  simonpockley | Feb 25, 2024 |
This is a brilliant example of the sort of understated British humor (humour?) I love so well. Bennett does a good job reading his own work. I strongly suspect this is even more enjoyable as an audiobook than it would be as a print read. ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
All Hail the Queen--and Norman! A hilarious novella. Tuck this one into some roses to give your favorite bibliophile on St Valentine's Day. ( )
  dele2451 | Jan 22, 2024 |
Still thinking about this strange little book. I am not sure what I think. I am not British. I know very little about royalty, or the Queen in particular. This is a story of her becoming a true reader. In ways universal, but at times unique to her world and its trappings.

The writing didn't grasp me with poetic use of the English language, even though I needed a dictionary at times with the words brandished. No earth shattering plot. No depth of place or setting. Yet? Still thinking.

This a very short read. Try it and let me know what you think. ( )
  wvlibrarydude | Jan 14, 2024 |
Lovely. This is the second time I read this book, and it is still very nice. Very sympathetic, somehow. The queen is quite a character, and it's lovely to read how she develops her reading. And how she manages her reading: the idea of her reading in her carriage on the way to her yearly speech, all the while waving at the audience is very entertaining! ( )
  zjakkelien | Jan 2, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 515 (next | show all)
Det är träffsäkert, roligt och nästan oanständigt underhållande...
 
Bennett manages to touch on some pointed issues in this little volume: life experience versus book experience; the pleasure of reading versus the sterility of being briefed; the riddle of what is "natural" behavior when a person lives so much in the public eye. And he makes you whoop with laughter while he's at it.
 
In recounting this story of a ruler who becomes a reader, a monarch who’d rather write than reign, Mr. Bennett has written a captivating fairy tale. It’s a tale that’s as charming as the old Gregory Peck-Audrey Hepburn movie “Roman Holiday,” and as keenly observed as Stephen Frears’s award-winning movie “The Queen” — a tale that showcases its author’s customary élan and keen but humane wit.
 
The Uncommon Reader is a political and literary satire. But it's also a lovely lesson in the redemptive and subversive power of reading and how one book can lead to another and another and another.
 
This time, his odd, isolated heroine is the queen of England. The story of her budding love affair with literature blends the comic and the poignant so smoothly it can only be by Bennett. It’s not his very best work, but it distills his virtues well enough to suggest how such a distinctive style might have arisen.
 

» Add other authors (18 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Bennett, AlanAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Boda, SofiaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Damsma, HarmTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Herzke, IngoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ménard, PierreTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Miedema, NiekTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pavani, MonicaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Salojärvi, HeikkiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Steinz, PeterForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.
Quotations
Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.
Had she been asked if reading had enriched her life she would have had to say yes, undoubtedly, though adding with equal certainty that it had at the same time drained her life of all purpose.
She read, of course, as one did, but liking books was something she left to other people. It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn't have hobbies. Jogging, growing roses, chess or rock climbing, cake decoration, model aeroplanes. No. Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to be avoided; preferences excluded people.
The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference: there was something undeferring about literature. Books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included.
Indulged and bad-tempered though they were, the dogs were not unintelligent, so it was not surprising that in a short space of time they came to hate books as the spoilsports that they were (and always have been).
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Wikipedia in English (1)

In this deliciously funny novella that celebrates the pleasure of reading, the Uncommon reader is none other than Her Majesty the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (J.R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett, and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people such as the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world, and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny. With the poignant and mischievous wit of The history boys, England's best loved author revels in the power of literature to change even the most uncommon reader's life.

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Book description
From the back cover: When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large.
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