What's a Common Reader -- and what is Uncommon Reading?

Virginia Woolf defined a common reader as someone who is not a scholar; not a critic. A common reader "reads for his own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinions of others. Above all, he is guided by an instinct to create for himself, out of whatever odds and ends he can come by, some kind of whole." By that definition, I'm definitely a common reader -- reading an uncommonly large and diverse collection of books.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Just Added to My Shelves:


Happily, my bookshelves aren't quite as out of control as this guy's appear to be -- apparently, he's a professor of some kind. And yes, this is a private collection, not an antiquarian bookstore... But the following additions are certainly going to take me another step in this direction!

Here are some recent additions, some of which I'll be reviewing or commenting on in the coming days and weeks:

  • The Conductor by Sarah Quigley (Amazon UK)
  • The Last Policeman by Ben Winters (Kindle)
  • Spies and Commissars by Robert Service (from publishers)
  • The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Rian Malan (NetGalley)
  • Broken Harbor by Tana French (NetGalley)
  • The Red Chamber by Pauline Chen (Kindle)
  • The Fallen by Jassy Mackenzie (Kindle)
  • Da Vinci's Ghost by Toby Lester (Purchase)
  • Our Lady of Alice Ghatti by Mohammed Hanif (Purchase)
  • Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline (NetGalley)
  • An Agent of Deceit by Chris Morgan Jones (Amazon UK)
  • The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington (Amazon UK)
  • Capital by John Lanchester (Amazon UK)
  • 419 by Will Ferguson (Bookstore Purchase)
  • The Paris Directive by Gerald Jay (NetGalley)
  • Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani (Kindle)
  • Jasmine Nights by Julia Gregson (Kindle)
  • Little America by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Kindle)
  • Fear in the Sunlight by Nicola Upson (Amazon UK)
And here are some new temporary additions, thanks to the library! So stay tuned, and watch for updates.
  • Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes
  • The Land Grabbers by Fred Pearce
  • Chasing Venus by Andrea Wulf
  • Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys (Nothing to do with those novels!)
  • The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero
  • The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
  • The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva
  • A Parliament of Spies by Cassandra Clark
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)