I’ve been a great fan of Daniel Pennac’s The Rights Of The Reader (Comme Un Roman) ever since my mother handed me a photocopy listing the 10 basic rights. Like any reader, I’d been looking guiltily at the stack of books I bought but never read, whincing at the thought of all the books I started but never finished and gloomingly calculating how much time I spent reading junk instead of High Literature. Pennac’s list immediately cured me of all that : here was somebody who asserted my rights to read what I damned wel please, to quit when it’s no longer interesting and to just read, even when the sun’s out and it’s a beautiful day.
Last year, Walker Books published an new English edition of Pennac’s book, with illustrations by Quentin Blake, another favorite of mine. What’s cool about it, though, is that they actually created a poster of the ten rights, with Blake’s illustrations and put it on their website as a free download !
As they say, download this gem, print it out and stick it on every wall you find ! The list is quintessential, the art is essential Quentin ! (ooh, that sounded awful…)
