Me & Mrs. Dalloway

Yesterday I bought the book.

I wanted to read it for a very long time.

It all began with the general knowledge that I ought to read at least something by V. Woolf to stay a worthy literature lover in my own eyes, especially having heard so much about the book and the controversy of its author. I am curious and I love the word controversial.

Then my 'sister' Vesna told me she read the book and that it was really worth reading. At that point I made a mental note: "You must read this book!", discarded the idea of lending it from someone and decided that my little but growing personal library can't do without this book.

This was all before the movie "The Hours". I didn't see it, just heard this-and-that about it, watched the trailer and the US Academy Awards that year. No need to mention curiosity here - it was growing by minute. Then I forgot (almost) all about it. Let's face it, I do have lots of work and other things on my mind. My book-per-year number has been decreasing steadily over past decade to reach shamefully low values.

So recently I thought: "What interesting could I read next?" - "Enough of the 'easy reading' (my dearest fantasy), let's read something serious for a change" (please note the humorous ton of my previous sentence; fantasy is everything but 'easy'). So I naturally remembered my dear, old, unread Mrs.Dalloway.

Believe it or not, the only issue of the book in Serbian is long past sold, but luckily I've found a neat new English bookstore in my town and bought the original. It has always been my policy not to read a translation if I do know the original language (English being the only one for now). It will be difficult, believe me! I've read several pages and knew that I've given myself a great challenge, but the one I'll enjoy very much.

But the best thing of all was not the rapture of finally being able to read this book, it was when I read the name Clarissa in it and linked it to the movie I saw many times before, loved it immensely but never knew its name. I was so excited to have discovered that and now I can't wait to read the book even more.