This book contains Virginia Woolf's 1926 lecture with a great introduction and afterword by Sheila Heti.
Although the lecture itself is only around 20 pages long, it's a wonderfully insightful piece with many thought-provoking points. I enjoyed every moment, and although the whole book took me a little over 15 minutes to read, it is one I will reread over and over again.

In “How One Should Read a Book” Virginia Wolf talks about how reading a book is a personal experience for everyone. Woolf regards reading as a thing of liberty and freedom, where you can escape and for not beIng influenced by what everyone else think. I believe Woolf’s attitude to reading greatly influenced her writing as she wrote the way she wanted to, that is not influenced by fashions etc. and never censored her thoughts. She also wanted to change the way we see certain literature, do we see fiction as mere amusement and poetry as false? She describes poetry and biography extensively and uses examples from other writers. This book is teaching us the proper way to read a book, in the words of Woolf. However, she believes that even if we read something over and over again we will never be able to truly criticise or understand it, because literature is so deep and profound.
Overall, a thoughtful read.

Fascinating insight from one of our best writers. Everyone who enjoys reading, or who is interested in how writers write, should get this book.

One of the things that pulled me towards this book immediately was the title, the second was Virginia herself. I am a HUGE sucker for books about books or books about reading and writing and I love how this book approached both.

I will admit, this is the first published essay I've ever read and I really enjoyed reading it. I have read a few other pieces by Woolf but this one will sit comfortably in my top 5 for a long time. One thought that stood out to me is how Virginia mentions that after-life of a book once you read it and even though life continues as normal after you're done, you always ultimately return to the memory of it, how the "book lives in the mind". I loved that.

"And it's a special pleasure to know that my reading can change a book, not only that a book can change me"

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

As a primary school librarian we wouldn’t stock this title only because it is above the expected understanding of reading for that age range.
Saying that, I plan to buy a copy for myself and for other book lovers.

It speaks volumes about how we are readers, how a book stays with us, and what we can take away from books.
I admit to not being overly familiar with Woolfe and her thoughts, theories and writing so I will actively seek to learn more. I found this essay fascinating and relevant.

Thank you for the chance to read it.

An interesting and enjoyable short essay by Woolf about the benefits of reading. I also enjoyed the afterword. It will make a great stocking filler this Christmas in this small-format hardback edition.

This was an awesome read! I can't believe I've never read this essay before but it was so awesome to read this perspective!
Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC for an honest review!

Quick Book Review: How Should One Read a Book? - Virginia Woolf 📖

(*I was approved for an eARC of this book on NetGalley, but all views are my own.*)

How Should One Read a Book is a short essay (that I believe was originally a speech Woolf gave) about how and why we read, and how one should go about reading.

For the first time as a standalone book, this essay is being published by Laurence King Publishing Ltd, along with an introduction and afterword by Sheila Heti. I will say now, Heti’s introduction and afterword were my favourite parts of this book. I’ve never read anything by her before, but this has really made me want to! 🖋

Woof’s essay itself is as much for writers as it is for readers. She talks a lot about the process of trying to write and drawing inspiration from what we read. She talks about there being different ways to read different genres and the fact that not everything should be approached in the same way. I think this is pretty much recommended reading for an aspiring writer.

HOWEVER.

One thing that this essay does reinforce through Woolf talking about her inspirations is just how white ‘classic’ literature is (this isn’t a fact she states or anything she goes into discussion on, it’s just something I picked up through the names she mentions and really wanted to talk about). This is obviously very well-known and her mentioning the same names over and over again just reiterates this sad truth. It’s upsetting to think of how many great works just never came to be, or were unpublished, or ignored and didn’t get the attention they deserved because their authors weren’t white.

Book Riot has a great list on their website of ‘100 Must-Read Classics by People of Color’ that is really worth checking out if you want to diversify your ‘classics’ reading. I will certainly be doing this myself.

I think I was drawn to this book just to tick the “I’ve read a Virginia Woolf book” box. To be honest, the title alone does not really inspire awe and intrigue, but thankfully the accompanying blurb set the tone for an insightful read.

The combination of Sheila Heti’s foreword/afterword and Virginia’s Essay really give a new perspective to writing and the importance and close relationship with the authors chosen readers, prior to completion. There really are some interesting perceptions, including a books shadow-shape;

“so the real book is not the physical book, but it’s residual shadow-shape”.

The concept of incompetent critics;

“when books pass in review like the procession of animals in a shooting gallery, and the critic has only one second in which to load and aim and shoot and may well be pardoned if he mistakes rabbits for tigers, eagles for barndoor fowls, or misses altogether and wastes his shot upon some peaceful cow grazing in a further field”.

And a forthright take on poor books

“Are they not criminals, books that have wasted our time and sympathy; are they not the most insidious enemies of society, corrupters, defilers, the writers of false books, faked books, books that fill the air with decay and disease? Let us then be severe in our judgments; let us compare each book with the greatest of its kind.”

The real intensity though, is around the relationship between the author or artist, and their target audience, particularly prior to publication.

“all art is initially made for other artists, and in response to their understanding and sensitivity.”

Thank you NetGalley and Laurence King Publishing Ltd for a review copy.

A very short book, with an essay written by Virginia Woolf, and afterword written engagingly by Sheila Heti.

Easy and quick to read, yet very thought-provoking - how should you read a book? What should you bring to it? How should you absorb and internalise it? Should you take other people's opinions of the book into account - in fact, should you take the author's opinion and intentions to meaning into account, or can you surmise and decide your own?.

Reading this short book will make you pay more attention to what you are reading. Everyone who considers themselves a reader would do well to give this a read.

Considered, insightful and endlessly empathetic to both reader and writer this essay pulls off the same trick that Woolf does so well in her writing - opening up the world to us all with a careful focus on the myriad lives and stories that move through it. Just wonderful.

A delightful little read all about the brilliance of books. Woolf's essay will inspire both readers and writers alike, offering a wealth of insights on how to approach an author's work.

How Should One Read a Book by Virginia Woolf with a forward by Sheila Heti is a really easy and accessible book on literary criticism.

The crux of the book is Woolf’s essay on who should be a book reviewer, written at an early stage in her career when she was not encountering the critical success that she became posthumously.

Woolf criticises the official reviewer who rushes through books, easily writing authors offs. She sees them as taste makers who do not truly understand the pain a writer goes through to create their art. She challenges such reviewers to take up the art of writing as the best possible way to understand what an author goes through. She encourages readers to choose books individually and not by herd popularity. So much of what Woolf talks about here is so applicable to bookstagram today that I would encourage everyone to read this essay.

What was exciting for me in this book was a thought I was struggling with since reading Lara Feigel’s The Group- can I authentically critique white women’s experiences just as there is on ongoing debate around own voice readers. I was happy with the outcome that yes, as discernible readers who read diversely, we can critique other’s experiences as long as it is with empathy, details and justification, rather than being led by pure opinions.

The other aspect about the craft of writing and critique came from Sheila Heti where she talks about how the only critics that matter to her are the ones who read her work while it’s being formulated. It made me want to be that person who helps an author while they are writing instead of just promoting a work when it’s all set.

A good read overall. Highly recommended if you are reflecting on how you want to review like I was.

This was so lovely to read and actually helped with my publishing dissertation!

Heti's afterword really brought the whole thing together and reflected on the text really well. I look forward to buying myself a physical copy of the book to keep!

Confession: I’ve only ever read one other work by Virginia Woolf, but that alone was enough to assure me I MUST read more.

How Should One Read A Book was first delivered as a lecture, which explains why this essay is very short - I wanted more of it! Beautifully written and with such eloquence and authority, Woolf discusses the reader-writer relationship whilst highlighting our approaches to literature depending on genre. She seamlessly moves from her ideas on reading novels to biographies to poetry, interweaving it all with the main theme about the joy of reading. English graduates may recognise this as a mini crash course in critical theory, but with a bit more passion and fun!

The introduction and afterword by Sheila Heiti is equally as exquisite and gave me another way of thinking about my own journey with books and writing.

This is a wonderfully thoughtful read for all book lovers! Thank you for this ARC.

A lovely essay by Virginia Woolf, sandwiched between intro and epilogue by Sheila Heti. Woolf discusses the importance of readers who read to love and discover, over critics who read for different motivations entirely. I like the idea of a book returning to the reader later as a “shadow-shape” and that its shape is determined not only by the author’s intention but also by the contours of the reader’s life at the time.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I enjoyed reading this book, it gave me some interesting ideas. Read it to help me prepare for my masters in literature. Highly recommend!

A short essay by Virginia Wolf, dedicated to all book lovers, or those who would like to be.

Un breve saggio di Virginia Wolf, dedicato a tutti gli amanti dei libri, o a chi vorrebbe esserlo.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I struggle with Virginia Woolf's language a bit, but I appreciated the sentiment of this short essay. I particularly enjoyed the preface and postscript that explored how writers and readers interact with each other over a book or any kind of piece of writing.

How and why Virginia Woolf become THE Virginia Woolf she is today. This book has an answer, infact, all the answers compiled in a book called Genius and Ink.

The Times Literary Supplement was born in 1902. As Ali Smith elucidates, in the preface of the book, ''Genius and Ink', the phrase that gives this book it's title has been notched out of 'on reading novels',one of the essays by Woolf written over two decades ago as a reviewer and critic for the TLS.

Virginia Woolf has highlighted how and why one should re-read a novel.Her sense of reader and writer in their physical selves-their age, their illness or health, their social and geographical context, their individual memory and experience and especially emotional development-yields valuable dividends.

The reviews are full of interfaces and echoes,personal statements and reading facts. Woolf was as much a reader as she was a writer. She has criticised and elevated the thought process of her readers to a level of peak.Woolf was also one of the very first critics to draw a fine line between what is called a 'Creative Writing' and what's called 'Critical'. Woolf's novelist self was still a critic,and the revolutionary critic in her was still a novelist. This amazing symbiosis makes a duo that contributes largely to the book's aura.

As for the real, the flesh and the bones of literary,the compiled essays here relates to the literary nature in the real world.The essays read unearthly but with a uncanny resemblance to reality. ''But there is one pecularity which real works of art possess in common. At each fresh reading, one notices a change, as if the sap of life ran in their leaves,and with skies and plants they had the power to alter their shape and colour from season to season"
(Virginia Woolf)

This book is an art, and art is supposed to make you feel things, which it did.