Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Virginia Woolf
About This Quote

What we find in books and other written material and what we would like to find in them can be completely different. We can come to a book with the expectation that the author is going to tell us something we want to hear. We can come with the expectation that the author is going to try and pull one over on us. We can come to a book with preconception that it will help us feel better about ourselves. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.

Source: The Second Common Reader

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