#common reader

[shewouldbuytheflowers]

At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.

Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader

[thehoveringbrain]

In defence of trash-reading

on Dr. Johnson's principle: "I would let [a boy] at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards.” Reading had to be proved palatable before it could be made nourishing [...] light literature should not be barred from mechanics' institutes and free libraries.

Richard Altick, The English Common Reader p. 371-372