Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES e. TRACEWELL.

diversity he can get between titles or
contents. or even in bindings. the
better satisfied he is. His bookshelves
reveal incongruity gone mad. Side by
side there will be van Dyne's Greene
Murder Mystery" and Ludwig's son Of
Man"
The slightest trife of the day. such
as But They Marry Brunettes" (suc-
| cessor to Miss Loos' Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes'D. will be put next to the
Bible, or perhaps to some grave
philosophical work which the owner
meant to read but never got around to.
/ One OF his pet incongruities, so in
| congruous, indeed that others may not
detect the note of incongruity at first,
is to read half dozen books at once,
and leave them all unfinished. Let
those who will say that such a course
shows instability The plain fact is
that it shows nothing more than a love
for incongruity running to absurdities.
The explanation is this: Dooden-
focker. as much as any man, reCog-
nizes the need for finishing a good
book once it is begun. He also realizes
! the paramount Importance of quitting
| a bad or mediocre book cold. preferably
at the end of the first chapter. but at
| least as soon as its tncapacity Is de-
!
| They start off with rush. perhaps 1t
| is a good opening sentence, or even a
| fine first chapter Locke's stella
Maris" was one such. The name con-
| tanned a lure, the opening scene was
| charming. yet somehow the interest
grew less and less as the pages ran on
and on, until the candid reader was
| forced to confess at the end that what
| he had at first thought was going to be
a great novel was only just $3.50, after
all.
| If this queer fellow. Charles Dooden-
| flocker, esq, realizes all this, you say.
| how comes it that he is, by his own
| confession, half way through list of
| books which he should have finished
| long ago7
Consider the list; Francois Muriac's
"Therese" pronounced Tay-reSs),
| Gates THE Modern Cat. Her Mind
| Flare" Keats Poems" Shaws THE
| Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism
and Capitalism" (what title) and
| several books in the new cheap re-
! prints which are becoming so popular.
| and whose titles Doodenfocker'S forgot
| to tell us. or we have forgotten.
One may we'll ask how any intelli
gent person could be able to half read
| such list; incongruity is the only an
swer. The list itself offers examples
| of the incongruous. but the real incon-
| gruity comes with a complete under
| standing Of the readers mind. We had
| O lonk talk with our friend the other
day, and we think we understand it;
| it is simply this:
| Doodenf1ocker. being conservative,
realizes that when one has once be-
| gun book he should finish 1t. Every
| one says so, and most people do. On
| the other hand, since Doodenfiocker
| has highly radical tendencies he either
| consciously or unconsciouSly houts con-
vention by reading as many books as
| he pleases at one and the same time.
The incongruity of our highly in
| congruous friend extends even further:
| He is so obsessed with the incongrui-
| ties which he loves that In the face OF
| this list of unfinished reading he Is Just
| as likely to sit down tomorrow and I'm
| ish q long novel in three or four hours,
| as he is a very fast reader
| AS for his incongruities in music,
whole chapter might be devoted to that
but we fear the reader is becoming as
| tired of Doodenfiocker's incongruitieS as
we are, and so we bid them farewell. Yet
| we cannot close without mentioning
| one more: Doodenfiocker, who is too
| fat, already, insists on drinking pint
of milk every night before retiring. Is
| this not Charlie Doodenflocker's most
! conpruous tncOngrtlitv?