I read about this book on another blog Bloggin' About Books http://blogginboutbooks.blogspot.com/. It sounded like it would be interesting so I thought I should read it - and I was not disappointed. The Uncommon Reader is written by Alan Bennett. Like I said in the title of the post, it is not a mystery but according to another review this is a political and literary satire. It's All About Reading and this is what it is about.
The queen of England stumbles upon a mobile library. Feeling duty bound, she checks out a book from the library and reads it. She becomes interested in reading and starts checking out books on a frequent basis.
Rather than tell any more of this short story (it is a Novella), let me tell you some of the things that impressed me about the book. This book has a lot of witty comments in it - comments similar to comments made by Mark Twain. Since reading is a major theme in this story, there were a lot of comments about reading. Here is one of those comments:
"Of course but briefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up."
It was interesting to see how reading consumed the queen. It was funny!!! It was great light reading. There are some references to homosexuality in the book but I only found one comment by a character that might be objectionable. Otherwise it was a funny story.
2 comments:
Sounds interesting. I think I should catch this one during my time off from work during the Christmas Break. It's always good to test out different literary waters. I never want to miss a good read. Thanks for helping me out.
Sounds like a good one! I need to get this for me and for my mom!
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