A Great Read

What I love best about being a lover of books is when you come across something that just completely sweeps you up, a story in which you lose yourself entirely. This is a rarer experience that you'd expect. Most of the time, even when I really enjoy a book, it's not quite on that level. I'd say it probably only happens with two or three books a year.

I had that experience today. There I was at work, shelving in a brief respite between helping customers, when this book on a display table caught my eye. I had the vague sense that I'd seen it several times without really noticing it, had probably even shelved it without giving it a second glance, so I'm not sure why exactly it caught my eye just then.

The title was the first thing that grabbed me- The Uncommon Reader. My first thought was that it was a new release of Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader, until I looked closer. Then I noticed that it was by the playwright Alan Bennett, the man who, among many other plays, wrote The History Boys, a favorite of mine.

Once I picked it up and read the description, I knew that I had to read it. Basically, Queen Elizabeth II ends up following her barking corgis to a mobile library truck that makes a stop near the kitchen entrance at Windsor Castle once a week for the staff. Simply to be polite, Her Majesty checks out a book.

From that point on, the Queen, who has never been a pleasure reader, becomes a true book addict, devouring books non-stop until it begins to change her life and upsets everyone from her palace servants to the Prime Minister.

It's a novella, only 120 pages long, and I devoured it tonight after work. I laughed out loud several times and completely loved this story. Bennett infuses it with so much humor and with a love of books that I could easily relate to. I only wish it had been a full length novel since I was nowhere near ready for it to end when it did!

I don't want to give too much away, especially since it's not a very long book, but I'd recommend it for any other book addicts out there and for anyone who likes to laugh, especially at the absurdities of protocol and public officials.