Monday 17 September 2012

The Classics Club: my favourite review

For September, the Classics Club's question is slightly more difficult:  from the reviews already published on the blog, pick the one that gets me excited to read the book in question, and offer a quote that will demonstrate this.

Why this is not easy?  Because in all the reviews I read and the blogs I follow, I always find something that will intrigue me, something that will show a new aspect to a plot, that will shine light to a part of (simingly) lesser importance.  Every time I read something, I'm bound to go and put yet another book in my TBR list...


For this meme, however, I will restrict myself to one blogger:  Sarah, from Sarah reads too much.  Sarah, in addition to a plethora of activities at home, is also involved in the Classics Club AND she hosts the Back to the Classics challenge (a great one for a newbie like me...).  She is a seasoned reader, someone who knows her way around complex, diverse, dark - why, even difficult books at times, and I've come to regard her as a reviewer worth paying attention to.  So, imagine my surprise when I read a post of hers like this:

Help me with Mrs. Dalloway! Please!!

(To her rescue came several bloggers, who provided comments - these I have not yet read)

Later on, when Sarah posted her review of Mrs. Dalloway, she started like this:


Reading Mrs. Dalloway involved learning a lesson that I didn't expect

and ended like this:


This was so far out of my comfort zone that I am going to need to be gentle to my mind for a bit


Now, some could may call this masochistic, but trust me - what better fun than to actually step outside your comfort zone?  to challenge your intellectual ability?  to change your thinking stream? In a nutshell:  What better fun than to read a book, that you will remember forever (whether in the end you enjoy it or not). 

I very much appreciated Sarah's review of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, because she made me realise that this is a book I want to read - asap... I've already put it to the top of my TBR list!

10 comments:

  1. Yes! You should read Mrs. Dalloway. And then reading Michael Cunningham's The Hours. Both of them are beautiful books.

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  2. Mrs. Dalloway (and The Hours) are two books that I've been avoiding like the plague. I've got this thing against Woolf ever since I tried reading To the Lighthouse. But perhaps, like you said, it's time again to step outside of my comfort zone and just give it a try.

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    1. I'll let you know of my endeavours...

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  3. Aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed my Mrs. Dalloway adventure! It is definitely worth reading and I am so glad I did. Enough that I have more Woolf on my Club List! I'll be curious to see your experience with it. :)

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  4. After many years of avoiding Virginia Woolf I read Mrs Dalloway last month. It was nothing like I expected and I really enjoyed it. Hope you will too.

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  5. Oh, Virginia Woolf. My nemesis!

    Someday, I'll give her another shot. To the Lighthouse really turned me off, though.

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    Replies
    1. Given that I've recently had two such cases of known writers who have put me off, I know the feeling... Nevertheless, we must persevere and meet our demons!

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