Unlike Corinne, I have to admit to never really coming across Woolf until Uni. My first year at Uni, where I did the minimum amount of work and spent most of my time engaged in Griffin's Tour Of England, presented a reading list in which To The Lighthouse was one of the texts. I vividly remember pulling the book from my bag at Cat's in an attempt to find something else and Corinne's telling me that I must read it. I read it, because let's face it, I am actually fairly easily influenced, yet whilst I thought it was quite good I didn't really think anything more of it. Second year, Mrs Dalloway appeared on the reading list. And I read it. Not only did I read it, I read criticism on it and consequently began to understand a bit more about Woolf and her novels. Then I spent half of my second year on Corinne's tour of Oxford, gracing the bookstore with our presence and Corinne buying a copy of one of Woolf's diaries. Somewhere along the lines Corinne's enthusiasm must have rubbed off on me because when it came to picking third year options, I picked Early Modern Drama and Woolf, much to Gilly's surprise. I admit to not being one to rave about modernists but I thought it was time I attempted to gain a better understanding of Woolf. Last week I read Orlando and apart from one tiny sentence or two on page 200, I really enjoyed it; except now I find all I want to do is read Woolf and ignore all the other work I need to do.
It is rather fitting that I had a Woolf seminar today - Happy Birthday Ginny*. Though I am rather glad Corinne and I don't have to go out and buy 124 candles to celebrate...I'm not entirely sure they'd all fit on a Maryland cookie.


*I only call authors I like by their first names. My Shakespeare notes include Will, obviously as well as Ben and Kit.