Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-06-26
Reading ASNECESSITY FORGOOD
EDUCATION, TOPIC Of Il. v. KINNEY

+ d rOt intend u enter INTO dis
Cus-!Gn on tAe subject As 10 whether
tap al, OF SNORT story writing has de-
! CIined or not. but | do certa My con-
Tend that IN me magazines. which are
now the chief publishers OF short stoT-
! as, one finds out small number Of
meritOrious ones in proportion to the
| number published. Think of the doZ-
ems OF stories which yon have read
during the past few years-theA try TO
recall the nam . thereof. the plots, the
! characters. ] am sure that you will
! remember but q few. The great ma
| jority Of them will have vanished CON-
pletcly from your mind-and for this
kind providence should be thanked.
! Bat who can forget Poe story A
| gem such as Guy de Maupassant's
! The Necklace" stands out clear in the
| memory and Is never forgotten.
| mention these as examples, Several
modern writer's produce stories which
have he power to impress themselves
on our minds, hui these are compare
| lively rare. Probably the explanation
| lies in the fact that a few score years
| ago there were only few stories pro-
| duced, whereas now the great increase
in the market for short stories, caused
] by the prosperity of the fiction maya
zines, has brought forth a demand
| for stories so great that there are not
! enough really good ones produced to
| go around. So we have TO take the
! bitter With the sweet, the mere space
filters with the real stories. 1t is well,
! think, to cut down the time which
We spend with this class, of literature,
and to devote it to the reading of
books worth while. am sorry to say
! that ! do not always practise what I
! preach.
The question of what one should
read should be solved by each indi-
vidual for himself. 1t is better to
| read something than not to read all.
would rather have boy Of mine read
Diamond Dick and similar trash to
having him show no interest WhateT-
! er in books. If he has brains at all,
! be, will soon desire better mental Pab-
! uIum and will gradually develop q
| taste for better thingS If he has no
brains it makes little difference what
he reads, anyway.
Il am sure that is a mistake to try
to force oneself in ones leisure hours
to read books for which one does rot
care, merely because one thinks one
ought to read them. 1t Is a very sure
way of spelling whatever innate taste
for reading one may possess. If
you do not care fer James, read Kip
ling; if you do not find pleasure with
the great Rudyard read O'Henry; but
read something, and after while you
will develop some kind of a literary
taste-possibly not a very orthCdcx
one, possibly not one which will meet
the approval of the higher and lesser
lights of the esthetic temple of your
particular neighbour God, but it will be
worth while nevertheless, for it will
be your own, and it will be far pre-
ferable to those which have been 5crt
rowed readymade from the book re-
views.
Many persons differentiate De
tween their serious reading and their
light reading They try to devote
Part of their time to literature of
formative character the heavier
works, which require the expenditure
ton in the reading; and they com
DiIlt VIII llllS TIC il IiSNlSi
books of the kind which can be read
without effort in the way ofa pastime
when the brain is too tired for the for.
mer. / think that this practise is
good one One secures in this man.
ner a sort of balanced ration. meats
and dessert, and mental indigestion is
thus avoided.
Il shall risk dragging in again our
poor old friend Ruskin. lie says on
the subject of reading for young
girls: Let her loose in the library
as you do a fawn in the field. It
knows the bad weeds twenty times
better than you, and the good on IS,
too, and will cat some bitter and
prickly ones good for it, which you had
not the slightest thought would have !
been So
While Ruskin. says this only in res
pect to girls, in my opinion it holds |
true quite generally. There is no way !