The Uncommon Reader

Bennett, Alan. The Uncommon Reader. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2007. Print.

First Sentences:

At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.

"Now that I have you to myself," said the Queen, smiling to left and right as they glided through the glittering throng, "I've been longing to ask you about the writer Jean Genet."

Description:

Here's a short, quick read with a very intriguing premise. What if the Queen of England, through a series of incidents, became an avid reader? What if during any boring formal ceremony and dinner, she stopped asking innocuous questions to honorees and instead quizzed people on what they were reading and offered them tidbits about authors? What if, during frequent official royal carriage rides, she was waving with one hand while reading a book in her lap out of sight from people lining the streets?  

She'd got quite good at reading and waving, the trick being to keep the book below the level of the window and to keep focused on it and not on the crowds.

Author Alan Bennett has created such a royal book-lover in his delightfully-imagined The Uncommon Reader. When the Queen chases after her runaway pet dogs one evening, she stumbles upon a previously unnoticed book truck parked outside the palace kitchen. Curiosity takes her and she enters, spies a book by an author she once met, and borrows her first book. She had never been a reader, nor had any other hobbies, before because:

Hobbies involved preferences and preferences have to be avoided; preferences excluded people.

One book leads to another and soon the Queen in deeply engrossed in discovering and reading more and more books. Since most of her responsibilities consist of showing up all over the country to attend openings, oversee launchings, and present medals, she is offered many hours to read while traveling in cars and trains..

Unfortunately, her court members feel she is now not giving her full attention to her more mundane duties or to the staff around her, so they continually scheme to rid her life of books they have neither read nor have patience to listen to her talk about. Even her dogs chew up dropped books that take the Queen away from chasing them around the palace.

A delightful scenario of a monarch happily reading while managing a country at the same time. Really a fun read. On a related note, author Alan Bennett was the author of The Lady in the Van (also a Maggie Smith movie), and one of the co-founders, along with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, of the wildly popular, satirical review, Beyond The Fringe.

The appeal of reading, she thought, lay in its indifference....books did not care who was reading them or whether one read them or not. All readers were equal, herself included....books did not defer...Here in these pages and between these covers she could go unrecognized.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Queenan, Joe. One for the Books  

Tremendously interesting memoir of a man who has read thousands of books, including 15 at a time, along with clever, insightful, often cutting reviews. Great recommendations for all types of readers. (previously reviewed here)