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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
in the book, her writing was more rambling. unfortunately, the subject manner on which she was rambling was dull. the depth of the characters gave it an extra star, but other than that, i found it very difficult to work through pages of the same paragraph. the entire plot is based on going to a lighthouse. after 50 pages, i couldn't give a damn if they made it to the lighthouse or not. after 60 pages, i was hoping all the characters would drown on their way if they ever left their damn house; at least then there would finally be some worthwhile reading.
i was listening to the audiobook on walks and wasn’t following it well. i think it’s something i’d need to sit down to read but don’t think im interested enough to keep going
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I spent more time reading this 'short' book that I typically do a book of this length, but still feel I could've spent more time on it. My first foray with Woolf, I didn't know what to expect. I'll have to say the writing is dense - I often found myself at the end of a page and then asking myself, "Now, who/what was I reading about?" The stream of conciousness style is a hard one to follow when you have 2 small children to tend to, but Woolf's writing and descriptions are astounding in that they can make the smallest event seem grand. It was tough to get through, but I liked the story. I liked the male v. female perspectives and loved the artist. I also thought the relationship between James and Cam and their father interesting. This is one I'll have to read again.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The first time I read this, I was home with a toddler and an infant, which means I'd pick up the book and read after I put them down for a nap and finished cleaning up from lunch and in between laundry loads, etc. etc. - only to realize that they were both up and the toddler was in the infant's room hatching a plan to help the infant escape from his crib.
Or, I'd read at the end of my day, in bed, in between nursing sessions with the infant and night terrors with the toddler.
Neither is exactly conducive to reading Virginia Woolf.
Now, said infant and toddler are school-aged, and though I'm still fitting reading in between everything else (there are still loads of laundry and dishwasher cycles, but now we've got dance lessons and sports practices), it is easier for me to focus on what I'm reading.
Woolf's [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1319710256s/14942.jpg|841320] is one of my all-time favorites, so I decided it was high time I had my own copy of To The Lighthouse and give it a good old fashioned re-read.
And I'm so glad I did.
This book has three parts; in the first, the Ramsey family and some summer guests, including Lily Briscoe, an aspiring painter, are enjoying a summer at their summer home in the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye. Young James Ramsey wants to go to the lighthouse, yet his father has already told him they won't be able to. Mrs. Ramsey tells him perhaps another day.
Life on the island with these guests seems content. They all go about their days, doing their own thing. And though they are all staying in such close quarters, they really don't have much to do with eachother; they can't seem to relate to one another.
Part two, is a ten year span including the years of WW I. The time moves, though maybe not as you'd expect it to. Death and loss pervades this section.
In part three, some of the Ramseys and their former guests return to the summer house. Mr. Ramsey finally plans to take that promised trip to the lighthouse with Cam and James. While they sail away, Lily tries to finish the painting she started all those years ago.
The complexity of human relationships is central to this book. Woolf tells the story in such a rythmic way with constant references to the water and to time - the house begins to look shabby, the rugs are fraying, the chairs are falling apart, the greenhouse needs to be mended - all of this while the tide moves in and out, the waves, the water lapping. And Woolf is able to absolutely capture the feelings, thoughts, ideas, memories, the perceptions of the characters. Everything that on its own would seem so mundane and everyday, yet as a whole, takes on a brilliancy.
To The Lighthouse is just overwhelmingly wonderful prose. It's just so good it's unreal.
She had a sense of being past everything, through everything, out of everything, as she helped the soup, as if there was an eddy - there - and one could be in it, or one could be out of it, and she was out of it. (p.83)
Raising her eyebrows at the discrepancy - that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing - ladling out soup - she felt, more and more strongly, outside that eddy; or as if a shade had fallen, and, robbed of colour, she saw things truly. (p. 83)
Or, I'd read at the end of my day, in bed, in between nursing sessions with the infant and night terrors with the toddler.
Neither is exactly conducive to reading Virginia Woolf.
Now, said infant and toddler are school-aged, and though I'm still fitting reading in between everything else (there are still loads of laundry and dishwasher cycles, but now we've got dance lessons and sports practices), it is easier for me to focus on what I'm reading.
Woolf's [b:Mrs. Dalloway|14942|Mrs. Dalloway|Virginia Woolf|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1319710256s/14942.jpg|841320] is one of my all-time favorites, so I decided it was high time I had my own copy of To The Lighthouse and give it a good old fashioned re-read.
And I'm so glad I did.
This book has three parts; in the first, the Ramsey family and some summer guests, including Lily Briscoe, an aspiring painter, are enjoying a summer at their summer home in the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye. Young James Ramsey wants to go to the lighthouse, yet his father has already told him they won't be able to. Mrs. Ramsey tells him perhaps another day.
Life on the island with these guests seems content. They all go about their days, doing their own thing. And though they are all staying in such close quarters, they really don't have much to do with eachother; they can't seem to relate to one another.
Part two, is a ten year span including the years of WW I. The time moves, though maybe not as you'd expect it to. Death and loss pervades this section.
In part three, some of the Ramseys and their former guests return to the summer house. Mr. Ramsey finally plans to take that promised trip to the lighthouse with Cam and James. While they sail away, Lily tries to finish the painting she started all those years ago.
The complexity of human relationships is central to this book. Woolf tells the story in such a rythmic way with constant references to the water and to time - the house begins to look shabby, the rugs are fraying, the chairs are falling apart, the greenhouse needs to be mended - all of this while the tide moves in and out, the waves, the water lapping. And Woolf is able to absolutely capture the feelings, thoughts, ideas, memories, the perceptions of the characters. Everything that on its own would seem so mundane and everyday, yet as a whole, takes on a brilliancy.
To The Lighthouse is just overwhelmingly wonderful prose. It's just so good it's unreal.
She had a sense of being past everything, through everything, out of everything, as she helped the soup, as if there was an eddy - there - and one could be in it, or one could be out of it, and she was out of it. (p.83)
Raising her eyebrows at the discrepancy - that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing - ladling out soup - she felt, more and more strongly, outside that eddy; or as if a shade had fallen, and, robbed of colour, she saw things truly. (p. 83)