Evening star., 1928-04-06

Spring housecleaning" is tern
| which might be stretched to include Q
general review of the home book
shelves.
whether these be built in" or Sec
tional, or old fashioned, they will be
found to contain some junk, In many
cases, with here or there volume that
should be gotten rid Of, for perfectly
good reasons.
Books are such personal possessions
that one finds 1t difficult to discard
them without compunction, as he mighl
paper bags or boxes that have serVeo
their purpose as containers.
It is true that most books bring the
reader valuable prizes. OF one sort oi
another, whether of valuable intorma-
ton. honest entertainment or comoi-
nation OF both.
Vet even the man who confesses thai
he reads for what he gets out OF .
hook" scarcely will be able to regard
them as lust so many boxes, to be used
AS containers of knowledge merely.
There is a great deal more to any
hook than that In the first place, II
book ever gave the reader anything, II
stands ready on demand to give him tne
same service over again.
Furthermore the good book Is IN
variably magic. sort of Pandoras ooX
in which the investigator always fnds
something new. There Is pehel
nrevalent that the reader must sit II
Judgment on the book. but often enougr
it is lust the other way around.
The book Judges the reader; the booF
holds more than the reader realizes
No peruser of the printed page land thi'
applies to magazines and newspaper:
as we'll as to bound volumes) can ge'
any more out of his application thar
he puts into it.
He expects the book ito tell hin
something" but there is an equal neceS'
sity for him to bring something 10 ths
work himself. from himself and of nm
self. It is amazing, the way one may
read a book one year regard 1t as mllol!
good only to 90 back to 1t lo years
later and to find 1t supremely gooo'
In such a case. the reader has grown
IN 10 the book. His stock of general OF
specific knowledge has increased 70
the point where he can better appreciate
the good that was in the book all the
time.
Perhaps an opera offers more point
ed illustration. Who is there, fond oi
music. who vet has not completely
missed getting" one of the principal
airs upon the first hearing?
The number may have been one OF
those delicate things that twine them.
selves around the heart strings yet u
lacked certain easy song patterns which
allowed the opera goer to grasp at once
the beauty of the lesser although per-
haps more melodious portions OF the
work
What did you think OF the so-and-so
aria?" a friend asked.
Il don't recall it,
The next time the opera was heard
however. this same person who utterly
failed to remember a note of the aria
suddenly realized, as he listened, that
this was one OF the most beautiful
things in the entire performance.
It is in much this same way that a
reader constantly finds new things IN
old books. 1t is one of their charms
and perhaps one of the best reasons
why one should be chary about throwing
them away,
Yet space is needed for new books
and all books are not good.
just as the buyer for a book store
stocks up. now and then, on volumes
that simply won't sell, either because
they fail TO strike the public fancy
or because they are poorly written, OF
unintercsting. or simply so much junk