Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-23

you've missed lot" she said when
informed that he had not read a GER
tain popular book of the day.
Well, what difference did it make?
What difference does it make?
We have been bordering this ques-
ton at some length recently-at some
considerable expense too~-and have
come to the definite conclusion that IL
makes no difference at all.
RI a book is really worth reading, II
will be as worthy years from now
or 10 wears hence, as it is today.
To be strictly up to the minute III
reading means very little, II anything
after all =,
ones friends have never read the
new book that one has read, and sc
the pleasure of discussing 1t vanlshes
before 1t even comes into existence.
Friends always have an uncanny way
OF having read something else,
There is a large section of the read
ing public that selects new books, espe-
cially novels, simply on the names OF
authors.
They religiously buy everything by
Galsworthy, whether they like it or not
This is perhaps the easiest way OF
posing as well read Every one who
reads at all has heard Of the famous
English novelist, and SO the fact OF
having read his --latest" carries with
it great satisfaction.
II shows one to be intensely sophis-
ticated ultra to degree and quite In
step with the presses.
No publisher can slip over Gals
worthy on him.
* X X X
The great trouble with scrupulously
irving to keep up with the new books
is that there are so many of them, in
the FIRST place, and in the second that
they are all untried.
Even the most faithful mentors Of the
latest publications seem lost in the vel
ter Steaming from the busy presses oil
America.
Publishers are vying with one an
other to catch the popular fancy to Such
an extent that more volumes are issued
each year than any one bookiover can
possibly aspire to know about, let alone
read.
Those who attempt TO boil the lists
down for an impatient public may OF
may not do good job OF 1t. They are
between the devil of playing the pub
AiSileiS SdIIlE dlId stL F4tlE b1iC Roeat1AS
reader.
And the hard part of it is that when
these more or less conscientious per-
sons have done their level best, granting
that they do their level best, even they
have no way of knowing whether the
book Is worth what they say 1t is.
If they possessed this knowledge TO
perfection publishers would hire them
at amazing salaries TO prevent them
selves from making the very mistakes
they do make
If any one man or woman could IN
fallb!y put mis- finger on manuscript
and say. This will make a CO. he
could retire rich in few years.
Publishers must gamble on their
books or take a chance on them, II
the former term is not liked. Popularity,
good sales, intrinsic worth-~these are
qualities which the most experienced
may think he knows. but never be sure
that he does know. He merely says, i
think So"
The uuiet-tempered booklover will not
be led astray by the seduction of keep
ing ND with the new books"
1t takes all types Of book friends to
make up the gigantic public that pur~
chases books. old and new; among them
there Is place. Of course, for those who
somehow believe that books are like
dresses. in the mode. chic.
Among them surely there is place for
the conservative person who asks that