After I read this I was reminded of our reading and discussion of Nabokov's "Good Readers and Good Writers." A lot less harsh than Nabokov's, but interesting nonetheless. This is an article by Virginia Woolf from A Common Reader, Second Series, "How Should One Read a Book?"
If this is so, if to read a book as it should be read calls for the rarest qualities of imagination, insight, and judgment, you may perhaps conclude that literature is a very complex art and that it is unlikely that we shall be able, even after a lifetime of reading, to make any valuable contribution to its criticism. We must remain readers; we shall not put on the further glory that belongs to those rare beings who are also critics. But still we have our responsibilities as readers and even our importance. The standards we raise and the judgments we pass steal into the air and become part of the atmosphere which writers breathe as they work. An influence is created which tells upon them even if it never finds its way into print. And that influence, if it were well instructed, vigorous and individual and sincere, might be of great value now when criticism is necessarily in abeyance; when books pass in review like the procession of animals in a shooting gallery, and the critic has only one second in which to load and aim and shoot and may well be pardoned if he mistakes rabbits for tigers, eagles for barndoor fowls, or misses altogether and wastes his shot upon some peaceful cow grazing in a further field. If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people reading for the love of reading, slowly and unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might this not improve the quality of his work? And if by our means books were to become stronger, richer, and more varied, that would be an end worth reaching.
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I definitely agree with Virginia Woolf that readers' are needed to be imaginative, and are used to spark discussions when reviewing books. Virginia Woolf has a more realistic outlook and sympathetic opinion on how real readers' read literature today. Nabokov suggested far fetch strategies, in my opinion, in how to read a book and the majority of people would have a hard time committing to these suggestions. It's difficult to completely separate yourself from a book and not imagine yourself a part of it. That's how book reviews and discussions begin, and without this connection to the book, you leave the book feeling robbed of what the author's purpose was - to touch his audience. I also agree that the readers' judgements of a book are extremely necessary to spark book critics reviews. Without our interpretation and outlook on certain motifs, characters, and other literary themes, the critics may find it difficult to raise controversies and discover certain elements of the book they have never thought of before. Readers' play an extremely important role in discussing and reviewing books, and it's important for the readers' to voice their opinions and read the book how they choose to read it. Without this unrestrained outlook, the author's initial attempt may be left futile and their desire to spark different interpretations and interest will vanish. Woolf's idea of how a reader should read a book is very realistic and I imagine more readers' taking her opinions and advice more seriously than Nabokov's.
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