# St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 4/Books and Reading

Books and Reading
“Valentine’s Day.”
We cannot, in brief space, give a history of the observances of this saint’s day. Lydgate, the English poet, about the middle of the fifteenth century sent a poem in true valentine fashion to Queen Katherine, the French bride of Henry V. Charles, Duke of Orleans, however, had sent a poetical valentine even earlier. Within two centuries afterward it had become the fashion to send presents instead of verses, but in the eighteenth century the fashion changed again, and the sending of verses has been customary ever since.
Feeding the Imagination.
Though no line can be drawn strictly between the two sorts of reading, schools must give most of their attention to teaching you facts, and therefore you should see that your outside reading contains plenty to supply the other more imaginative element,
A Question for Consideration.
If there is any one of our readers who can give a valuable bit of advice to help in this most important matter of choosing good reading, it would be a kindness to all who desire not to waste their time upon inferior work.
Reading and Traditions.
The main objection to the change is this: Tradition is a living thing; so soon as a matter is put into print, it remains unchanged, and therefore does not grow or improve. All this matter is mentioned here now, because it is the holiday season, and many of the most valuable of old traditions have grown up in regard to holidays and their customs. When we consider how much went to make up a Christmas, or Twelfth Night, or New Year’s celebration in the days of Queen Elizabeth, it seems a pity that holidays should become merely days of idleness and feasting. We therefore appeal to our young scholars to revive, from books if necessary, the good old customs that are in danger of being lost or forgotten.
Feeding the Imagination.
Shakespere and Dogs.
Hawthorn’s Stories.
What makes the Worth of a Story?
All of us, doubtless, like to read Hawthorne’s stories, yet probably we would be puzzled if some one were to ask why we like them. There is certainly not much stirring adventure in them; no narrow escapes, shipwrecks, combats, and such things, as there are in the majority of stories, Even in his larger works, such as “The House of the Seven Gables,” there is very little action or movement; yet all his writings are very interesting, You will notice that a good deal of his space is taken up with describing people —their characters and opinions—how they thought, and what they thought, their motives and feelings. And this is the very reason why his stories are good. A story which truly pictures life and character is good, and will always be good, because man is really the same now as he was in the past and as he will be in the future. Modes of living have changed and will continue to change, but we will always be the same in feelings and interests.
And we like to read about life and character; they are the most interesting things we knew of—we can look around us every day and read them in the faces and acts of other people, just as well as we can read them in our books.
If a story has the quality we have been discussing, and if the language and style in which it is written are good, it is safe to say that it has “real worth.”