Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

, One can be bored enough by others!
There are a variety of reasons why
reader may wish to cease reading a
| certain book upon which he began with
| high hope. He may find the book is not
what he thought it was. He may dis
| cover after he has gone a chapter or
| two, that it involves some of his pet dis
likes. 1t may offend him by using the
present tense, when his personal, pri-
| vate opinion is that all books should
be written with the past verb lenses
1t may be good book, but not suited
| to his mood Of the moment Circum-
| the book: one expects to come back to
| it. but when the time rolls around. the
reader finds he has lost his urge. Then
| he should wait until it comes back to
| him again.
He should not force it. A book is a
delicate thing, not a brick to be slap
ped into place with a liberal dose of
mortar. 1t Is a product of the mind
and works on other minds. To force
ones self to wade through a book,
whether or no, is to run the risk of
losing something.
In regard to this latter phase of the
matter, one would not be too intent on
making point. 1t is undoubtedly true
that a reader may force himself to go
on with his reading, to discover after
while that he is beginning to like what
before was diStaSteful Who would ever
like James Fenimore Cooper if he shut
the book-any of them-after the first
so pages? One has to persevere.
Admitting this, there still remains the
plain fact that every reader must be
law unto himself as to the exact point
where boredom begins and ends in the
n a,-tsa
ne has discovered this, it is strictly up
to him to continue or to Quit,
X X X x
If he discovers his book is not what
ne thought it was going to be, he should
crop IL. Maybe at some other time, but
not now. Books, like human beings.
often turn out differently from what
one at first thought. Sometimes the
most fascinating is found to be lacking
in those good qualities of decency which
make real book-or human being.
II book, especially novel, incor-
porates some of readers pet dislikes,
there is no reason for carrying on with
It, Every one for himself in this mat
ter. With some it is nothing more than
stock situation which went over big"
in Martin Rather" quarter of a CEN
tury ago, but which has lost its power
after all these years. Maybe the reader
dislikes the use of the present tense. No
matter what it Is, if the rest of the book
has not held his interest, he should Law
it aside. Such a disposal is no criticism
of the work. Let that be kept fully in
mind. The opinion of no one reader
can be correct for other readers. What
one likes another dislikes, and what
the second dislikes the first likes.
Above all, if the book is a good book
but somehow does not seem to fit the
mood of the moment, it should be
placed aside to wait more propitious
occasion. Minds of writer's and readers
every reader-cannot always coincide
1t is manifestly impossible for every
book to make exactly the same appeal
to every reader. Wherefore it will be
found that many good books, which
the reader knows to be good, strike him
in the wrong way. This cannot be
helped. 1t is part of reading, although
not often mentioned. This Is where the
home library comes in If the reader
owns the book, he may lay it aside with
a good conscience, knowing that when
his mood changes he will find the book
waiting for him.