I recently bought a Harvest Books edition of Virginia Woolf's "The Common Reader". I have been buying quite a few of her books recently, not in first instance to read but as props for my booth at Dutch interior design fair "De Woonbeurs" (end of September). This edition instantly attracted me because of its cover design by Rudi Bass, but reading the back page I was sold!
"The common reader," says Virginia Woolf, "differs from the critic and scholar....He reads for his own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinion of others. Above all, he is guided by an instinct to create for himself, out whatever odds and ends he can come by, some kind of whole-a portrait of a man, as sketch of an age, a theory of the art of writing." Reading these words Woolf's reader doesn't sound so common to me. Should it have been "The Creative Reader" in stead?
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Or even the creative blogger! Have you read Woolf's A Room of One's Own? I think I will need to revisit after this post!
ReplyDeletei like that .. you bought a book for its cover too look good at your stall and then read it too. another reason good design makes the world go round (-:
ReplyDeleteLooks interesting. Maybe my hubby will have to go back to Germany in time for the De Woonbeurs! I am so there! Can't wait to see some pics!
ReplyDeleteI get attracted by a cover, no doubt about it. sounds like an interesting read as well, will keep it in mind. Currently have four books i've bought on an impulse that i'm making time to read! julesx
ReplyDeleteHowever one comes to read Virginia is good! I started reading her journals 35 years ago and that led to a passion of all things bloomsbury. You will especially like the art. Look up Duncan Grant!
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