How Should One Read a Book?

This essay appeared in its third iteration in Woolf’s collection The Second Common Reader. The Common Reader was a collection of Woolf’s essays addressed not to critics or authors but, as the name implies, to the average reader. It was published in two volumes as a collection of Woolf’s ongoing essay writing, in 1925 and 1932. The Common Reader attempts to equip the average reader with the tools to read, understand, and even judge great literature. In all, her collection provides an introduction to many of the relevant authors of her time. The book’s title suggests many meanings. The noun “reader” refers to the person reading but is also a term for an educational collection of works: a “primer” or a program of reading to be worked though. “Common” means “ordinary” but also “in common”: a “common room” is a room in universities where students or teachers gather with their peers socialize and share ideas. In calling her book the “common reader” Woolf suggests that she and her readers share a communal experience: they read “in common” with each other.

Published soon after she had written several of her most famous works like To The Lighthouse (1927) and A Room of One’s Own (1929), The Second Common Reader is representative of Woolf’s literary thinking at the time.