HOW ONE SHOULD READ A BOOK?

Virginia Woolf

“Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice.”

How One Should Read a Book is an essay about reading strategies written by Virginia Woolf. The essay present about reading novels, biographies and poetry.

The essay has written the title in the form of question though it is not the question to the readers. Different dramas, poems, novels were written in different language by man and women of different ages. After separating genres, we have to read the books. Novels and poetry may be only imaginative, biography may be flattering and history may contain prejudice. That's why the readers should keep in mind about the generic differences. Writer like Hardy, Austen present their perspective through their one vision.

Reading is a process through which readers get pleasure and form their judgments. It is a lifelong process because the expectations of reader changes. Writers always catch the floating movements. They capture the activities not only of human beings but also of birds and animals. Generally it is thought that old books are the rubbish but they are important because they record the vanished movements. They give the beautiful humor as well as pathos.      

    .

Readers are tired of searching for the half-truth. It is possible to get the half-truth only through literature. When we read five poems by five different poets, we get different aspects of truth. To understand any writing, we have to compare it. Judgments should be based on comparison. Emma has to be compared with other novels like The Great Gatsby and so on. In the process of reading, readers are divided into the feeling of love and hate. One incident performed by one character in one situation gives us pleasure, but in other situation it gives pain.

Virginia Woolf offers many different ways to read a book in her essay How One Should Read a Book. In the opening of the essay, Woolf states that her essay cannot define how all people should read a book. Instead, her essay only states that the answers found in the essay apply only to her.

That said, Woolf does offer suggestions to readers of the essay in finding their own way to properly read a book. Woolf's first suggestion is that we, as readers, must "control ourselves." What Woolf means here is that there are many different genres of texts. As readers, we need to understand that each genre offers something different from the others. One's job as a reader is to "become him" (the author). Instead of judging the truths and realities (criticizing too early), the reader should allow the text to open itself freely to the reader (without any preconceived ideas).

Woolf goes onto suggest that the imagination of the reader is key to appreciating a book. Without imagination, the reader is limiting what they will get out of the book. Limited imagination leads to limited entertainment.

Woolf also suggests that readers not ignore the memoirs (autobiographies) and the biographies. She suggests that these types of writings offer readers insight into real lives, real conflicts, and real history. Virginia Woolf states that readers should not only look to be entertained and educated, but to "refresh and exercise our own creative powers."

In the end, Woolf suggests that there are two parts to reading: opening the mind to the suggestions made in the book and judging. For Woolf, the first is far more difficult than the second. 

Woolf suggests that by doing these two things reading a book will allow the book to become "stronger, richer, and more varied."

Q. Why does Woolf speak of the joys of ‘rubbished reading’?

In the essay How One Should Read a Book, the writer presents her concept about her reading process. Along with she talks about the value of rubbish reading.

In the library, there is the stock of old books by previous writers. When literature grows old it becomes the heap of rubbish. But the heap is not meaningless rather a meaningful store of knowledge. Without reading the old literature, it is impossible to get the fleeting moment of the past. Human beings do have different activities in different situation. This situation can only be familiarized to us only by reading the old literature. By searching the books in the library, we can complete the half-truth.

Thus, Virginia Woolf likes to give important to the rubbish reading. It is only through rubbish reading history as well as interesting moment of the past can be familiarized to the readers.

Q. Woolf's Rhetoric:-

How One Should Read a Book by Virginia Woolf is the suggestive essay about the reading process, tactfulness, suggestiveness, inductive argument and example allusions are the rhetoric strategies used by Woolf.

Woolf is tactful in her presentation. She suggests that books are different thing to different people. She lets the reader's judge about any piece about themselves. She asks the readers to judge things only through comparison. One book by one writer has to be compared by other books by other writers. She defines reading only on the basis of reading process. She likes to suggest that writers capture the fleeting moment in their writing what is very interesting about Woolf style is her inductive reasoning. At first, she puts the main concept and then goes on justifying it.

Woolf's popularity rests in her thematic presentation as well as stylistic construction. The essay deserves importance ever for its Rhetoric.

FURTHER READING:

In How One Should Read a Book Virginia Wolf talks about how she views reading a book as a personal experience for everyone. She views reading as a thing of liberty and freedom, where you can escape and not be bothered by what everyone else thinks. Woolf’s feelings about reading influenced her writing: she wrote whatever she wanted and never censored her thoughts. She also wants to change the way we see certain literature: we see fiction as mere amusement and poetry as false. She describes poetry and biography extensively and uses examples from other writers. This reading is teaching us, what Woolf thinks, is the proper way to read a book. But she believes that even if we read something a hundred times we will never be able to truly criticize or understand it, because literature is so deep and profound.

In the first paragraph Woolf says, “the only advice indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.” By saying this what the writer is trying to say is that no one views and imagines a book the same way. We don’t even imagine a book the way the writer intended us to. So maybe in a way we are also the writers since we come up with our own conclusions. It’s like when a book becomes a movie: the director shows the way that he viewed the book, he may even change certain events and characters for the movie. The writer may argue against this but they can do nothing about it, since the director has made it his own. She also argues that one cannot truly say that one book is better than another. Romeo and Juliet may be viewed as one of the greatest books of all time, but to whom? We all see it a certain way and Shakespeare certainly isn’t around to discuss it with us.

It is also ironic when Woolf says that we shouldn’t be told how to read a book since it takes away our freedom, but later on she is telling us how we should read a book. She tells us not to dictate the author but to try and become him. Woolf is trying to say that we shouldn’t say, “Why would the character do that? I would’ve made them do so and so.” We should respect the author’s choice and try to understand why they wrote that. She also thinks that takes away from us truly enjoying the novel. She thinks that when we read we are in a different world, and when we read we shouldn’t let things from our current world influence the way we are seeing the book. It also seems like Woolf is questioning the intelligence of the readers. She seems to believe that one must be an intellectual and college-educated person in order to fully appreciate a book.

The end of the essay shows how much Virginia Woolf loved and valued reading. She looks at it as a kind of holy thing that will get the readers into Heaven. She thinks that the people with books under their arms will get into Heaven, before the lawyers and the statesmen. She thinks that we not only read for pleasure but because it is a good thing to do. Reading strengthens and influences the mind.