My Woolf year has begun

2013 is underway and I am currently reading: Jacob's Room, Mrs Dalloway, The Voyage Out and The Waves.

I am reading these all in eBook format, which allows me to search, annotate and get definitions from the text. Now I have the 9 novels in electronic format I plan to do some word comparisons which are very tedious in the ordinary book format. I will share the results here.

Reading of The Waves at Yahoo Groups

I am the moderator of the Virginia Woolf group at Yahoo. We are starting a read of The Waves in the New Year. Feel free to join us. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and search for Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf eBooks for iPad

I have just found a cheap place to get eBooks of Virginia Woolf's works for the iPad/iPhone. Go to the iBooks app on your iPad and search for Virginia Woolf. Most of the novels are available for 99 cents but you can buy a book with all 9 novels for $4.99. This represents great value.

I find it useful to have eBooks as you can cut and paste relevant sections into blogs and discussion groups.

Tuesday 26th of September 1922

"We agreed (VW and T S Eliot) that people are now afraid of the English language. He said it came of being bookish, but not reading books enough. One should read all styles thoroughly."

Two great points here: (which merely means that I agree with them!!)

1. There is a tendency in some academic circles to read books about a book instead of reading the book itself. The book should always be the primary source.

2. Reading eclectically through literary genres exposes us to a wide swathe of the English language. It also allows us to consider why we like some works and not others. The analysis of the question, "Why don't I like this book? (painting, film etc) can be very fruitful.

Virginia Woolf Diary: 13 September, 1922

"Having written this, L. put into my hands a very intelligent review of Ulysses, in the American Nation; which, for the first time, analyses the meaning; & certainly makes it very much more impressive than I judged. Still I think there is virtue & some lasting truth in first impressions; so I don't cancell (sic) mine. I must read some of the chapters again. Probably the final beauty of writing is never felt by contemporaries; but they ought, I think, to be bowled over; & this I was not".

I agree with Woolf here about first impressions, but have always found it useful with any work of art to analyse why I like or dislike a certain work.

Virginia Woolf Diary September 8, 1922

"Nature obligingly supplies me with the illusion that I am about to write something good: something rich, & deep, & fluent, & hard as nails, while bright as diamonds".

"I finished Ulysses, & think it is a mis-fire. Genius it has I think; nut of the inferior water. The book is diffuse. It is brackish. It is pretentious. It is underbred, not only in the obvious sense, but in the literary sense. A first rate writer, I mean, respects writing too much to be tricky; stratling; doing stunts...

I feel that myriads of tiny bullets pepper one & spatter one; but one does not get one deadly wound straight in the face - as from Tolstoy, for instance; but it is entirely absurd to compare him with Tolstoy".

Virginia Woolf Diary: Tues 22 August 1922

"The day was like a perfect piece of cabinet making - Beautifully fitted with beautiful compartments".

I have to admit this is the first time I have seen a day being described as being like a piece of furniture. She never ceases to amaze me with her writing.

Have a great day