Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-08-31
How to Read.

Do NOT lay out detailed "course
of reading" Probably you would not
follow it, and the moral effect of MAX
ing plan and giving it up is injuri-
Gus. But there is another reason for
my advice When you become inter
ested in a subject, then is the time to
follow it zap, and read everything you
can get hold of about it. What you
read when thus keenly interested you
will remember and make your own,
and that is the secret of acquiring
knoWled ge to study thing when
your mind is awake and eager to know
more. No matter if it leads you away
from the books with which you set
out; and if it sends you to another
subject, SO that you never again open
the original book, SO much the better;
you are eager, you are learning, and
the object of reading is to learn, not
to get Through a certain number of
books.
"What we read with inclination"
said wise old DR.. Johnson, "makes q
strong impression. What we read as
a task, is of little use.''
When you read book that interests
you, YOU naturally wish to know more
of it's author. That is the time to
make his acquaintance. Read his life,
or an account of him in an encyclo-
pedia; look over his other writings, and
become familiar with him. Then you
have really added something to your
knowledge. If you fettered yourself
with COURSE" you could not do
this, and before you finished a book,
you would have forgotten the special
points which interested you as you
went through.
You think that history is dull read
ing, perhaps. I'm afraid that is be-
cause you have dull way of reading
it, not realizing that it is a series of
true and wonderful stories of mems
lives, beyond comparison more marvel
Gus and interesting than the fictitious
lives we read in novels. The first
pages are usually dry, I admit, and /
advise you not to look at them till you
feel desire to do so; but select some
person, and follow out the story of his
life, or some event, and read about
that, and l assure you, you will find
new life in the old books.
After getting, in this way, a frag-
mentary acquaintance with a nation,
its prominent men and striking events,
you will doubtless feel anxious to
know its whole story, and then, read
ing it with interest, you will remem-
Der what you read.
But there are other subjects in which
you may be interested. You wish first
to know about the few great books and
authors generally regarded and re-
ferred to as the fountain-heads of the
worlds literature. 1t is impossible,
in a little "talk,' like this, to give.
definite directions for gaining knoWl-
edge of these. Needs vary in almost
OfSI C6toC, dIlA. q. UOOh JIldU Ii4gna
wisely be selected for one girl, might
be a very poor choice for another.
Almost every one can turn to some
judiciOus relative or friend who, at
least, can start her in good direction
Once started, the way is delightful and
easy. There are many entrances into
the great temple of literature--you
need not go in by all of them.
There are many well known and
often qUated authors, concerning whom
you Wiz wish to be informed, even if
you never read their works. You
want to know when they lived and
what they wrote. The world of boo ks
is too large for any one to know thor
oughly; You must select from the wde
ran ge what suits your taste, ana be
content 20 have an outside, or sitle-
page, knowledge of the rest.
Above all, in your reading You want
to avoid becoming narrow and one