Stumbling on a passage that other people care about, framed as though you should care about it too, can seem like a violation of virgin text.
Four pages into the chapter, Woolf writes, "Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty".
These days, perhaps because I'm covering the national economy — or because current economic troubles are too much to ignore — I often stumble across passages in children's books that inadvertently teach economic principles.
The resolution of the homestead dispute today appeared to leave only one big stumbling block to final passage of bankruptcy overhaul legislation.
When Mia and I stumbled onto this passage last night, I started to do what I did the last time we read these books together.
Not long ago, I stumbled upon the passage quoted above, and decided that the apparition of a mixed-race singer at Bayreuth six decades before Grace Bumbry officially broke the color barrier, in 1961, was a mystery worth exploring.
On the other hand, there were one or two moments – notably an episode in which Tranter gleefully trashes a highly regarded work by a famous South American novelist – when I experienced a faint tremor of recognition, the curious sensation of having stumbled on a passage written for me and me alone.
The very next day, I happened to be reading Soupy Sales's autobiography, Soupy Sez! My Life and Zany Times, and I stumbled upon this passage: "Throughout my career, I've tried to be as generous and kind as I possibly could to everyone.
The fight to repeal DADT failed before it succeeded and I have hope that the DREAM Act has only hit a stumbling block on the path to passage.
The deacon stumbled through several passages, reading in Ge'ez, an ancient language that very few Ethiopians understand today, and was corrected by two older men flanking him.
