Friday, September 30, 2011

This train is headed... TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

Cover of the 1st edition
Where: B/Q platform. Soon after I spotted this reader, she boarded a briskly running B-train while I was left waiting for the Q to saunter into the station 10 minutes late like a stoned highschooler.
Who was reading: A tall blonde with short floaty layers of hair that drifted around as though touched by an errant sea breeze. Of course any current in the air would have come from deep within the subway tunnels, so less "sea-breeze" than sewer's sigh.
Invisible breeze aside, what about her really blew you away? She toted a tote-bag emblazoned with an artist's rendering of the storefront of Shakespeare & Co. booksellers.
Did she really? Totes.
But isn't this supposed to be a post about a book? Why yes, yes it is.
So, Fun Fact: This introspective tour de force by Virginia Woolf stole 15th place on Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels, though it only ranked 48th on the companion list selected by readers.
3 books readers ranked higher: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Battlefield Earth by L. Ron. Hubbard, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
And that's why... we have boards of educated persons to tell us what's good.

4 comments:

  1. The truth hurts! That's why we need blogs like this to tell us what's good.

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  2. I could never get into Virginia Woolf.

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  3. Um, 4 Ayn Rand books and 2 L. Ron Hubbard books in the top ten seems kind of weird. Also 2 Stephen King novels made the readers' list?

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