Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The rights of the reader

I haven't anything profound to say about books, reading, or art at the moment, but I offer this instead.

French author Daniel Pennac published a book in 1992, called Comme un roman, published later in English as The rights of the reader. It's a terrific book about reading. He summarises the ten 'rights' as follows.

1. The right not to read.
2. The right to skip.
3. The right not to finish a book.
4. The right to read it again.
5. The right to read anything.
6. The right to mistake a book for real life.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to dip in.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to be quiet.

(10 rights - 1 warning. Don't make fun of people who don't read - or they never will.)

You can find a poster of this here, with illustrations by Quentin Blake.

2 comments:

  1. I hadn't seen this before Melissa, but I love it! Thanks for sharing.

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  2. THE RIGHT TO READ OUT LOUD AND NOT FINISH A BOOK! yes!

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