Welcome to Litsy!

I had no idea this novel was so autobiographical. Knowing that Woolf & I both lost our mothers at a similar age, the stark before & after in the novel made sense to me. All that happens in your life before & after a major loss are forever categorized that way in your own head.

Seeing the grief through the eyes of different characters was powerfully. Even when processing the same death, grief is unique and we can let it shape who we become.

Oh my goodness, these covers of the Classics at Barnes and Noble are BEAUTIFUL! 🤩😍🤗

I finished this book back in August for July‘s #VirginiaBloomsberries and #AuthorAMonth picks. I read both a physical copy and the audiobook and I think the audio really helped me follow the shifting perspectives and stream of consciousness form. Woolf‘s writing is luminous and layered and I found the book both thoughtful and quietly moving - a truly lovely read. 4/5⭐️
#100DayProject2025 Book 15/50
(September 15, 2025)

#VirginiaBloomsberries @AllDebooks

This is my favorite VW novel. It‘s so difficult to write a review of this book. The plot: a family staying on an island wants to visit a lighthouse, but they do not. I guess you don‘t read VW for the plot. It‘s all in the writing and the emotions evoked. See above for details.

#Read2025

Finished for June‘s #AuthorAMonth & #FictionalTraveler #Water
Thanks to @Soubhiville I read it on SerialReader which I think helped me with its short sections. It has some beautiful writing but not enough plot & too much stream-of-consciousness for me & was hard to keep track of. I got behind in A Room of One‘s Own on SerialReader & I may try to finish it tonight but I don‘t know that I will read more Woolf unless pushed to do so. 😉

#VirginiaBloomsberries

Discussion thread for July's #buddyread

💡Did you enjoy the novel? Any particular likes or dislikes?
💡 Was the stream of consciousness narrative a pleasure or a challenge?
💡 How would you describe the Ramsey's marriage and relationship with their children?
💡 What was your understanding of the symbolism Woolf used throughout the novel?

All welcome to join us.

Very introspective. The story consists mostly of the characters‘ inner thoughts, about themselves and the other characters. I found the reading challenging at first, because I was trying to “read” the sentences. Once I decided to just let the writing wash over me and “feel” the writing, I did much better. Virginia Woolf is a masterful writer, but honestly, I just didn‘t care very much about any of these characters.
#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

#WeekendReading

#Readyourebooks
#AuthorAMonth #TBRtarot
#Roll100

Repost @AllDebooks

#VirginiaBloomsberries

Our July #BuddyRead is VW‘s 1927 novel, To the Lighthouse. We meet the Ramsey family at their summer retreat in the Hebridean isles over a ten year period.
Critics have claimed its themes to be about art, WW1, time, family and connection. My experiences of reading VW, so far, lead me to expect a highly skilled novel accumulating all the above themes in a most concise way. I can‘t wait.

#VirginiaBloomsberries

Our July #buddyread is VW's 1927 novel, To the Lighthouse. We meet the Ramsey family at their summer retreat in the Hebridean isles over a ten year period.
Critics have claimed its themes to be about art, WW1, time, family, and connection. My experiences of reading VW, so far, lead me to expect a highly skilled novel accumulating all the above themes in a most concise way. I can't wait.

@LitsyEvents

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This was my first time reading Woolf's fiction. It's a famous one to start with. It was challenging, hard to maintain concentration because there is no plot drive, hard to make sense of. The prose is rhythmic, sometimes feels like a poem, and I read it best when I applied a rhythm to my reading. And, I've been thinking about it ever since I finished. She leaves a lot to think about.

This was poetic and lovely but also made me feel like I can't read.

Once she even switched POV mid-sentence.

It's like Sylvia Plath and Charles Dickens had a baby prose-wise.

Timescale-wise, this is not technically possible. I checked.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm not sure if this is a difficult book to read or if I'm just really poorly 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

Reading my first Woolf novel.

Here‘s an early quote:
Since he belonged, even at the age of six, to that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that, but must let future prospects, with their joys and sorrows, cloud what is actually at hand, since to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallise and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests…

“About here, she thought, dabbling her fingers in the water, a ship had sunk, and she murmured, dreamily half asleep, how we perished, each alone.“

Up next!

#bookspinbingo

Repost for @AllDebooks

I've been meaning to revisit Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set for a while now. Would anyone be interested in joining me for a monthly #buddyread from August?

As well as Woolf's books, I will be including biographies, non-fiction, retellings of her work, etc. There's certainly a lot to explore.

Let me know if you'd like to join me and I'll start a taglist.

Original post - https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2754185

I've been meaning to revisit Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set for a while now. Would anyone be interested in joining me for a monthly #buddyread from August?

As well as Woolf's books, I will be including biographies, non-fiction, retellings of her work, etc. There's certainly a lot to explore.

Let me know if you'd like to join me and I'll start a taglist.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/monks-house/who-was-virginia-woolf

4-5 Mar 24 (audiobook)
Definitely not a fair review. Woolf‘s writing, and this book in particular, does not easily lend itself to audio. This mostly consists of stream of consciousness thoughts of various characters, focussing on their views of each other, during their stay at the Ramsays‘ summer house and planning of a trip to the lighthouse. Unlike Clarissa Dalloway, I found Mrs Ramsay unsympathetic and particularly disliked her husband.

No book cover so i juste draw a lighthouse in my journal. A re-read from Virginia Woolf

My umpteenth re-read, this time via audio on BorrowBox. It's got to the point now that picking up this book is a whole "time passes" motif of its own in my life. ?

One of these days I might have sympathy for Mr Ramsay: today is not that day! (I am curious about his beautiful boots, though. ?)

I forgot to post my #bookspin list yesterday, but here it is!! I‘ll be reading “To The Lighthouse” and “ The Great Alone” this month!

So it seems I‘ll be one of the few (from what I‘ve seen on Litsy) detractors of this novel. I realize a lot of people love this, but I did not at all. I‘m not sure what I just read. For me, this omniscient stream of consciousness style is difficult to follow. Each moment requires thirty pages of memories and meandering thoughts and impressions from every participant‘s mind. I‘m not clear on what the story is even about other than a painting.

You either like Virginia Woolf or you don't. To the Lighthouse, like the rest of her fiction that I read, is painstakingly slow and deceivingly short; you will have to work through those pages where the author lets you experience just a moment in someone's life. It's so descriptive of what the characters are seeing, feeling and reminiscing on that single mundane moment that you get to fully experience it with them. ⬇️

There is a reason why classics become classics. This was the first time I read this particular title and I found how she described everyday life absorbing. She has a very distinctive voice. #classicreads #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

My #bookspin list for May! Hoping to get back on track this month. April was a bit of a slump for me.

For anyone interested, A Public Space will be reading To the lighthouse next month!

#InQuotes Day 16: #Intimacy

Reread of a favorite that did not disappoint. No one is better at describing a character‘s interior life than Woolf.

I cannot "get over" the racism in order to enjoy reading this. So going to bail.

Wow. This lady was really racist huh? I am not sure if I knew that at some point and forgot? I have only read one other book of hers years and years ago I read Mrs Dalloway. But I don't know if I am going to finish this one.

Happy 2023! The new year brings a bunch of new books from 1927 into the public domain (and into #SerialReader) including To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf among other works by Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Arthur Conan Doyle and more!

Find the full list and more info over at Serial Reader's blog https://www.serialreader.org/blog/new-books-1927-public-domain-2023-lighthouse-h...

1. Skye
2. Tagged book plus several others for mood reading
#two4tuesday

"Did Nature supplement what man advanced? Did she complete what he began?"

My list for July‘s #bookspin! I would be happy to read any of these picks, so looking forward to seeing what is in store this month!

#OnThisDay in 1927 Virginia Woolf published her follow up to Mrs Dalloway, To The Lighthouse. Woolf began writing To the Lighthouse partly as a way of understanding and dealing with unresolved issues concerning both her parents. Published through her own house, Hogarth Press, and with a cover designed by her sister Vanessa Bell, the book outsold all her previous novels and the proceeds allowed the Woolfs to buy their first car. #HistoryGetsLIT

Lately I've been reading so many classics, and I knew I wanted to read this book. The writing was as you might expect, though I could understand it and found it rather descriptive I found myself finding different quotes that resonated with me, particularly ones that described my favourite characters, Mr and Mrs Ramsay. The characters relationships were well developed and I really loved the philosophical side of the story.

🖤🖤

🖤🖤🖤

The beginning is a classic family drama. The middle is a symphony in prose. The ending is a metaphysical triumph

To the Lighthouse is the quietest novel I have ever read. I don‘t entirely know what that means but I know it to be true. It is a novel of observation. Characters rarely speak to each other and when they do we hear of it through the eyes of a third party. Oftentimes it is simply communication without words, words somehow feeling inadequate. It‘s a novel you‘ll want to flip open to a random page and savor each and every word.

I've never read Virginia Woolf, so I'm excited to finally do so! The seniors at my school are assigned this text which makes me feel a little behind the curve as they ask me questions that I can't answer. (I teach freshmen, but I get a lot of seniors in my study hall period.)

What other books by Virginia Woolf should I seek out?

Ending the year with two stories that I've been meaning to get to for a while now. 🤓

What's your last book of 2021?

My first Virginia Woolf book! 🥳 This was...stunning. One of the best books I‘ve read this year. I was worried that it might be kinda hard to read or something, but I was happy to find that it was actually very readable. The writing was gorgeous, the characters were excellent, and its philosophical insights were very profound. Woolf really knew how to draw the transcendent from the mundane. One of my first exposures to Modernism, and it was great!

In a quiet summer-home setting, Woolf paints a portrait of inner character and relationship dynamics through the language of thought. Sublime work! How can distinct, limited persons find unity, love, & buried purpose? Woolf shows the way in her greatest novel. The “Time Passes” section is daring and transcendent. The portrait of a struggling artist moves me with its truth. This is one of my very favorite books: kind, trenchant, artful, beautiful.

“Told from multiple viewpoints, To The Lighthouse gives unprecedented insight into the minds of the characters, as well as telling a broader story of personal and social change in the world after the World War I. To The Lighthouse is a landmark work of English fiction. Virginia Woolf explores perception and meaning in some of the most beautiful prose ever written.”

Yes, the writing is exquisite but I had a hard time getting into the story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Beautifully written but too prosey for my liking.

Reading at work whenever I can