Evening star., 1928-11-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

sideration. There is an old saying to
the effect that one never gets out OF a
thing any more than he puts into it.
Applying this to bookdom, it Is ques-
tionable whether the book borrower,
whether he secure the book from a Ii
brary or friend, ever gets exactly as
much from his reading as he would If
he personally purchased the volume
with his own money.
This may seem theoretical, and yet
we are convinced that it has eminently
practical bearings. If only one in four,
or one in 10, or one out of whatever
number, reads books, it is partly because
three or nine, or whatever the remain
der may be, have not been sold on
the necessity of personally buying their
own books.
If it we're said, "Only one person out
of four runs an automobile" one would
jump to the perfectly proper conclusion
that 1t is because only one out of four
owns an automobile.
There would be more book readers II
there were more book buyers. There,
indeed, is the rub! An intensive cam
| paign has been carried out in the past
two or three years by book publishers
to induce the public to buy book a
week." or something like that, but such
good propaganda, pleasing to all those
who love the printed word, must begin
far, far back of the adult purse.
The necessity for personal ownership
of books ought to be preached to chill
dren, if universal book ownership and
antece6ant purchasing Is to become a
reality, either in America or Australia.
1t is like locking the stable after the
horse is stolen.
&c %A iV1I, on admit
who takes pride in doing as he pleases
so long as he violates no law and in
jures no neighbor to buy books If the
child from which that man grew never
had a bookcase Of his own filled with
his own books.
X \ X X
Librarians need fear no competition.
The great public library is distinct
adjunct to city or town.
The best friend of the library is the
booklover who has a collection of his
own at home.
He is in the best position, because
of his own hundred or thousand VOL
umes. to appreciate the tens or hundreds
of thousands of books reposing on the
shelves of the circulating library.
One of the beauties of book owning
is that quality, not quantity, is the cri-
terion.
This may be said without fear of
cant.
Bookdom is one of the places where
quality really rules. A good book is a
good book, no matter If it reposes Ill
solitary grandeur, whereas shelf OF
cheap stuff is still cheap stuff, no mat
ter how fancy the binding nor how
long the shelf.
Personal ownership satisfies a book
lover not only because of the contents
of his book, but also because OF his
regard for a book as thing. one
does not have to be connolsseur OF
rare volumes to enjoy this feeling.
The man who said, Il only read books
for what 1 can get out of them. !" missed
half of the pleasure and much OF the
gain of reading.
He never knew the soul-satisfying
sight of a dearly beloved volume which
he delighted to hold in his hand simply
because it was beautiful-and his own.
1t is this feeling which must be IN
tensified if all the adult population
is to love books. Whether it Is pos
sible, or necessary. or expedient to de-
mand such thing of the population
is distinctly another question.