Evening star., 1928-11-10

The chief librarian of the public
! library of New South Wales, according
| to a recent Associated Press dispatch
| from Melbourne, told an educational
conference that mot one Australian in
! four ever read book"
One may wonder how the chief libra
rian had such precise data as all that.
| Australia is great land, but thought
| full person will question the ability OF
any one, even librarian, TO make sucn
! fiat deduction.
Conditions prevailing in any given
country would much influence such a
| figure. The general state of literacy
might perhaps be the best test Of all.
Yet even at the best, it is difficult to
see how the belief of any one man on
such a question would have much
weight, since he would have no way OF
knowing the extent of book buying, and
consequent book ownership on the part
of the average individual.
The book-reading public is composed
of two main groups, the buyers and the
borrowers. Every reader Is, at one tlme
or another. a member OF both classes,
so that there can be no hard-and-faSt
classification.
The most ardent circulating library
devotee will buy book now and then
upon some particular topic that inter-
ests him, or when the run" on sue
cessful novel is so great that he Is
forced to wait long time for 1t.
He who believes in owning all the
books he reads though he carry this
practice to the impoverishment OF his
purse, will find it necessary to frequent
the public library upon occasion.
X X X X
1t may be believed that in Australia,
as here, the real book buyers are pre-
cisely the men and women who have
little to say about it.
They make no boast of their love for
books.
The most spying person might never
surprise them with books IN their hands.
They make no parade of the books on
their home shelves, so that an out-
slider might well think they never owned
volume.
He might take the attitude, as evil
IDENTIFY the Australian official did, that
, because they are seen with newspapers
in their hands as they go home in the
evening they never read anything else.
They would make a mistake in so
believing, however.
Modern newspapers admirably supple
ment books. There is no remarkable
difference between the English used In
newspapers and that put into books.
often the same writing goes from one
to the other without change.
The book-buying public accepts lts
papers and its books as one and the
same thing in different form, each int1u-
enced by conditions, each the product
of humanity striving for expression.
One may we'll believe that every one
who likes to read finds his Joy in read
ing. not because the words he peruses
are In book or newspaper or magazine.
but simply because they are expressions
of the human spirit.
X X X
After all, the urge for expression of
ideas, whether good or evil, is what
writing is Good writing does not be-
come bad writing simply because 1t is
printed on newsprint any more than
bad writing becomes good writing be-
cause it appears between fancy boards.
The average man on the street
recognizes this and is as content with
his newspaper reading, if it satisfies
him, as If It we're in book form.
The personal possession OF the news
paper by the newspaper reader, due to
his expenditure of his own money, is
factor which must be taken into con-