Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01
BOOKS THAT GO ROUND ABOUT
Something About a Circulating Library
and Its Business Methods.

"a considerable percentage of our customers
don't really read at all, they simply consume
books, said the keeper of a circulating library.
They are people usually who have no occupa-
ton in life and who try to kill time by what
they call reading. Among them are a good
many women i'll fashionable society, who are
particularly addicted to reading in bed in the
morning, not getting up until noon or nearly.
Every day 1t happens that person of that sort
comes in and takes out the very same book she
has perused during the previous week; then
she carries it home and peruses it over
again without being in the least aware of the
| fact that she has ever seen it before. You NAV
Imagine that am not serious, but my assistant
Will tell you precisely the same thing. Some
folks don't seem to have any real minds, but
only certain arrangement of mechanical pro-
cesses that takes the place of brains. Not less
than 10 per cent of those who come here for
books are persons who simply read in this way
| as it were. for want of thought. AS for the
women of fashion, those of them who patron
| iZe this establishment have always read every
| thing ever printed hitherto they say, and their
incessant cry is for something new"
MAGAZINES MOST WANTED.
"What sort Of literature do you find most in
| demand?" asked The STAR man.
Magazine literature. 1t seems to mark the
present popular tendency. Each month buy
| nifty copies each of the three leading monthlies
| for my trade. Men call for little else besides
the magazines. The women read light fiction
in addition. What they want is always the
| very latest novels. Standard authors of fiction
| are rarely demanded. Bulwer and Thackeray
are called for more than Dickens or Scott, but
| the works of all four moder on the shelves
most OF the time. Anthony Trollope and Wilke
| Collins considered rather out of date.
| Stockton is very popular and the bad things he
| writes go as well as the good ones. Something
as newly out as possible is what is desired"
Chow about boys bOoks?'
"Mayne Reid still maintains his rank as the
most popular boys author. Oliver Optic and
| Horatio Alger, such favorites generation ago
| have gone out of fashion to a great extent
| kingston Cooper and Marryatt are great dea
read, Marryatt less than Cooper. OF later
| writers for boys G. g. Carlton and L. H. Knox
are i'll greatest favor"
| RENEWING STOCK.
| "Do you suffer any losses2"
"Not apart from the ordinary wear and teal
on the books. We only give out volumes OIL
the years subscription plan. The scheme OF
| renting books for two cents day or ten cents
| a week is by no means so likely to be a pay
| that persons who get books by the week Away
want very new ones and it costs too much
money to supply that demand. or course We
are always slowly accommodating new volumes
| Tor which room Ii made as rapidly Oh
the shelves by the destruction OF ole
I
said to vary inversely with its popularity
| the more it is read the shorter time it lasts
When it has reached point Of disintegratior
| that renders 1t unavailable for further service
a fresh volume takes its place. We suffer very
| little from wanton damage to our stock. You
will be surprised to learn that it is very rarely
| that any writing in the books or dogs-earing ii
done. When volume, as once in a while doe,
| occur. Is seriously injured We make the Gus
toner pay for new one. 1t is surprising
| how often library books are chewed up BY
young puppies, which seem to regard such
| literature as favorite food. Our subscribers
by the way, are nearly all department clerks"
SOME OF THE cRANKs.
"Do not your customers sometimes do or Say
queer things?"
.Yes, indeed But it is hard to renembe
such occurrences offhand. lady came il
here today and asked for a weird book-some
| thing entertaining for q wild moment Ant
another one only an hour ago rushed in ant
remarked that she felt as if she had been sittini
ON the edge Of the equator and that she wantet
something to relieve her of the idea. Som
people have Q notion that it is very dangerou
to read circulating library books, for the reason
that whenever q person falls sick the library j
pretty sure to be called upon to supply reading
matter for the patient II the latter has an,
contagious disease the germs are apt to find
resting place between the leaves Of the book
particularly from the patients breath as he o
she turns the pages, and the next person VIII
peruses the same volume is likely to inhal
| these germs. Such ID the theory entertaine
J by many crsnks, but ! don't believe much in
. myself"