The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-13
IN THE LITERARY FIELD
ART OF READING SWIFTLY AND
WELL IS IMPORTANT.
Not Necessary to Read Mass of Cur
rent ~Ffctfon-Lord Rosebery's
NoveI-BOok Gossip.

A common and trivial excuse given by
those who read little is that they have no
time for reading, says the Contributors
Club in the Atlantic Monthly for July.
One may have no time for eating or sleep
ing. but hardly no time to make love or to
read. 1t is good will, concentration and the
habit of dispatch. not leisure or unlimited
opportunity, which have always performed
the greatest wonder in both Of these use
ful pursuits. Many persons in mature life
are conscious of a gentle and luxurious sem
tIment in favor Of reading. which comes to
nothing because they do not know how TO
read. With all the good will in the world.
they lack concentration and the habit OF
dispatch. The good will was not applied
early enough, or not applied at all TO any
other end than that lazy diversion Of a mo-
ment. This naturally resulted in the forma-
ton OF the newspaper habit, by which 1 do
not mean simply the habit Of reading news
papers. but the habit of mind which makes
ii possible for men TO spend an evening in
going through motions. There is no more
reason for spending two hours in reading
the newspaper than in having ones boots
BACKED. Some people never make their
way into the great establishment of letters
farther than the vestibule, where they
spend their lives contentedly playing mar
bles with the hall boys. OF course we do
not call the newspaper worthless simply
because some other things are worth more.
The best reading is both intensive and ex-
t~ensive; one reads a little of everything,
and a great deal of some things. The good
reader takes all reading TO be his province.
Newspapers, periodicals, books old and
new, all present themselves to him in their
proper perspective; they are all grist to his
mill. but they do not go into the same
hopper or require the same process. On
the contrary, one of the main distinctions
or the clever reader is that without vary
ing as TO intensity, he varies almost indef-
nitely as to pace. This power OF reading
heXibly comes mainly, of course, with prac-
uce. For those who have lacked an early
experience of books, the manipulation of
them is never likely to become the perfect
and instructive process Of adjustment which
Ii should be. People often achieve a certain
degree Of education and refinement late in
life, but seldom, l think, the power of the
accomplished reading man. 1t is simply not
to be expected. An adult who takes up the
violin may set much amusement and profit
from his instrument, but he cannot hope TO
master ii. A certain increase Of facility,
however, the belated reader may surely eX-
pect to gain from some sort OF observance
Oh IllS simple principe OF adjustment.
This anxious but unskilled reader is too
likely TO have a set gait, so many words 10
the minute or lines to the hour. An essay.
an editorial, a chapter in a novel or in the
Bible, a scientific article, a short story, if
they contain the same number of words,
take up just the same amount of this mis-
guided persons time. No wonder reading
becomes an incubus to him, with the appall-
ing mOnotony of it's procession of printed
words filing endlessly before him. He really
has time enough. If he knew how 10 make
] uSa OF II. Eben Holden kp0DS him hlSY for
q week or more; it should be read in a few
hours. He plOdS methOdically through Sir
Walter, and finds him slow; the happy
reader who can get Quentin and his Isabelle
satisfactorily married in six hours does not.
The trained reader readjusts his focus for
each objective. Milton may be read in
words or lines, Macaulay in sentences,
I~hackeray in paragraphs, Conan Doyle in
pages. The eye, that is, readily gains the
power OF taking In words In groups instead
OF separately. How large a group the
glance can manage varies with the serious
ness of the subject. With the same degree
of concentration, eye and mind will take
care of a page Of the Prisoner of Zenda"
as easily as they can. absorb a line of Mac
beth" or one of Fftzgerald's quatrains.
OF course this disposes Of the indolent
l0lllng style Of reading-Or rather makes a
rare indulgence of it. When one occasion
ally comes upon the novel Of his heart, or
the poem he has waited for, he NAV well
AFFORD to consider IT at his luxurious leisure,
minimizing labor by dilatoriness. But as a
rule the widely reading man is not an indO-
tent person. MOI I0dI he Is 10 De always
keeping his nose In a book. BY regulating
his pace, ne not only covers an astonishing
amount of ground in reading, but makes
room for other things. He knows how to
get the most for his time. that is all. The
bee does not eat the flower to get the honey
out of It. The eye Of the skilled reader acts
like a sixth sense. directing him to the gist
OF the matter. in whatever form it may APP
pear. Twenty minutes yields all that there
is for him in the book which his %neighbor,
knowing that it would mean a weeks spare
hours, is careful to avoid.
This, it may be said, ounds very much
like an advocacy of ~skimming. Swimming
and rapid reading are different processes,
but skimming is at times a good thing, too;
even skipping becomes, on occasion, a
sacred duty. We may go a step farther,
for Swimming implies cream, and skipping,
q foothOld somewhere; and many books de-
serve neither of these less and least compli-
mentary modes Of treatment. The eve
brushes a page or two, and the mind is
hardly called I'm to assist in a damnatory
verdict which is informal, but IN
The experienced reader, in short, is an
artist, and, like other artists, attains his
highest powers only when he has learned
The poor fellow whose conscience will not
let him refuse an equally deliberate consid-
Grafton 10 every six inches Of black and
white which comes in his way may be an
excellent husband and father, a meritorious
awyer or merchant, and a model citizen:
he is certainly not a good reader.