Well, at least I don't feel like it's just me anymore who's having a hard time getting through the book. It's not that bad, but it takes time to let everything sink in. She tends to jump from character to character without any warning, so it's hard to follow along.

Yep, there are books you take to the beach, or on the subway, or to the bathroom...and then there are books where you seal your bedroom door shut with insulation foam, send the kids to the movies, sedate the dog, place noise-reduction ear phones on your head, and then read.

reader2121 wrote:Yep, there are books you take to the beach, or on the subway, or to the bathroom...and then there are books where you seal your bedroom door shut with insulation foam, send the kids to the movies, sedate the dog, place noise-reduction ear phones on your head, and then read.

Yes! You know, I'm almost finished, but I feel like "Mrs. Dalloway" is not the type of book where you just can't wait to get to the end. Every page is jam packed with quotes I just want to frame and place all over my house, they're so beautiful. I highlighted the crap out of my book, trying to savor every line I thought she mastered, and it's been a long haul. I still look back through some of the pages I read and feel like there are things I missed - there is just so much to the book. And since the entire book takes place in a day, I thought it would lose its intent if I spaced out my reading too much, but there is just no way you can just sit down and read "Mrs. Dalloway" like you can "Harry Potter," just banging it out in 2 days. The effort was worth it, though.

You might be able to read it in 2 days...maybe some people can. I know I can't.
You can read Camus' The Stranger in an afternoon, but you'd end up missing a great deal of the themes and subtext.

Would anyone like to share some of your favorite quotes or lines from the book? I'll start:

One of the most powerful statements made, in my opinion, is when Septimus is being examined by Dr. Holmes, who claims Septimus should "spend as little time thinking about himself."

"Once you stumble, human nature is on you."

I just thought it summed up the way Virginia herself probably felt about her place in society. The minute you act in a way that doesn't perfectly correlate with the actions of others, you may be outcasted, and life can become difficult. Especially if you're such a visionary, like Septimus, who, though never did anything wrong, made claims of wanting to kill himself and hearing the voices of the dead. Immediately, "human nature" was on him, and wanted to either "fix him" or put him away.

And, I think Woolf, who we all know eventually killed herself, felt very strongly about a person's own choice to die, and how society wants us to live for each other, instead of ourselves. So, the minute we declare that this life may be of no meaning for ourselves, the minute society is on us to stay alive and be happy because they believe there should be no reason to want to die. But, as many characters portray in this book, sometimes there seems no reason to live. Sometimes the life we have built for ourselves as human beings is trivial, yet we allow the nonsense to rule our lives instead of encouraging the freedom within one another. Septimus, just like Virginia Woolf, simply had the right to choose not to live a life that seemed purposeless and misunderstood. And, I think their dramatic visions were often mistaken for psychological instabilities, when, really, maybe they were just trying to make meaning of a meaningless world.

Haven't read the book, but loved the movie.

Mrs Dalloway was included among the top 100 best english language novels by Time in 2005. it is certainly an engaging novel. the best part about the book is its stream of conciousness technique. i just fell in love with it.