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 enlarge | Author: Alan Bennett
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $6.00
You Save: $9.00 (60%)
New (36) Used (30) from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 7255
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0374280967
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780374280963
ASIN: 0374280967
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Short easy read - LOVED it! May 31, 2008
Whatever you do, don't skip to the end, leave the room if a smart alek friend starts raving about this book and avoid any reviews that don't come with a spoiler warning (there are none here so don't worry!). Yes, you definitely don't want to have one of the best endings in bookdom which happens on the VERY last page of this delightful novella, spoilt for you.
The Queen discovers reading, and pursues this new passion with much gusto to the horror of her private secretary, prime minister and others. She reads everywhere and to the point where it interferes with her royal duties. Her reading choices are remarkable, guided in part by a kitchen helper who first introduces gay-themed books for Her Majesty's reading pleasure. But before long, she is onto to other authors, one book leading to the next. I was most indignant when her royal staff ganged up to stifle this new hobby, but her royal resourcefulness discovers that reading leads to an even more interesting hobby: writing. I closed it with a satisfying chuckle, wondering if someone would pass this gem to the Queen. It definitely earns the "You have no idea how much fun this is" award.
 Hail to the Queen! May 21, 2008
This is a quick delightful read. Wasn't as enamoured with it as others who had recommended it, but I did find myself chuckling out loud several times. Based on a quirkly premise of the Queen's introduction to reading for enjoyment rather than duty. Disliked the ending.
Wonderful story by a true wordsmith May 20, 2008
Since reading this book, I have purchased 3 copies to give to friends. I love books that are unique and well written and this one certainly fits the bill. If you're looking for a story that immediately grabs your attention, that is short (my sister read it on the plane from Phoenix to San Francisco)and, has a an ending that is sure to bring a smile, by all means get a copy.The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
A quiet gem of a story May 14, 2008
An Uncommon Reader is an understated story of the self-discovery of a person who has lived a proscribed life in the public eye. Alan Bennett gives the reader the feeling of what it's like to live the life of the queen -- indeed to be inside her head -- in this brief novella.
Royalty collides with literature. A total delight. April 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What would happen if Elizabeth II, Queen of England and matriarch of a family notoriously hostile to books, suddenly became an avid reader? Alan Bennett gives us the wryly hilarious answer in his novella, "The Uncommon Reader." Bennett is well known for his erudition and wit as an essayist and playwright, and also--as demonstrated before in "The Madness of King George"--his tart and piercing insight into the institution of royalty and what it does to those who are part of it. How Bennett, a Yorkshireman of lower-middle-class origins, came by his insights into the House of Windsor is a mystery, but it has given us some delightful works of literature, including "The Uncommon Reader." Bennett is brisk and persuasive in portraying how a steady course of reading presents the Queen with a series of revelations about her life and personality, and how it shapes her perceptions of her empire and her people. Simultaneously, reading interferes terribly with the serene dispatch of royal duties (the corgis are just as unhappy as the equerries). In this little book of barely more than a hundred pages, Bennett has a great deal of fun skewering not only royalty and its minions, but also his fellow authors. Here are the Queen's thoughts after hosting a soiree for some of Britain's most distinguished literary lights: "Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met in the pages of their novels, and as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them."
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