Day 22: book you're currently reading.

As those of you who know me know, a lot of my literary taste has been decided by my Granny. Perhaps decided is the wrong word; it makes her sound like a book-dictator which she is absolutely not. Maybe 'guided' is a better choice.
My Granny is a reader, as is my Mum and as am I but whereas Mum and I agree only now and then on reading matter, Granny and I have very similar tastes. I'll read a book she recommends just because she recommends it, no further selling is required and I've found many a new author to love because of gifts from her. I'm not sure if it's because she knows me and my reading well enough to always be able to choose the right book, or because she loves the books she loves so much she wants to share them and just keeps getting lucky. Either way I'm glad.
It's to Granny that I owe my love of Harry Potter: if it wasn't for her insistence that I'd love these kids books that my kid brother loved then I never would have read them and that just doesn't bear thinking about.

My Granny's favourite writer is Virginia Woolf. Granny loves Virginia Woolf in the way that I love Margaret Atwood and it's that which brings me to the point of this post. I was pretty sure I was going to get along with 'To The Lighthouse' and now, at almost halfway through it, I think it's safe to say I was right.
I really really like the way Virginia Woolf writes. Not a lot has happened so far but it doesn't seem to matter. Her characterisation is wonderful and her writing the novel using stream of consciousness is so effective; it's awfully rambly but you feel like that's sort of the point, like you're sitting in the heads of these people and following through on their thought processes and it illustrates really well the contrasts in how the same moment is viewed by different people. The style and the way it reads takes a bit of getting used to I must admit and not only because at times you feel you know a little bit too much about what people are thinking, especially when some of those people aren't all that likeable but it's well worth the effort and I can't wait to get stuck back into it.