Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-21
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

Time. however, has a way Of put
ting everything into its place, books,
men, inventions, foods. The common
sense of the people prevails In the long
run. They may be fooled for a month,
but not for years.
Any book which still fingers in pub
lie approval at the end of that time.
which appears with fair regularity in
library lists, and still is spoken of in
general conversation, may be adjudged
good book.
Let us define bit more closely
the term "a good book" For a good
book is, after all, what every one wants
to read. One mans idea of a good
book may differ from another persons,
but perhaps all would agree that a
good book is one which possesses merit
above a certain superficial smoothnesS.
1t is to the creditor maybe the
shame-of modern education that 1t
has been able to turn forth large
number of writer's. who have learned
all the tricks of the trade. Their short
stories, for instance, are perfect, from
the standpoint of short-story mocha
nism. Even the least critical reader
feels, however, that something Is lack
ing.
Many a short story is more perfect.
technically. than anything Maupassant
or Poe ever did, but scores of them
every year, despite their glitter, lack
certain something which it is diff
cult to define, but which is known al
most by instinct to those who have
been brought up in a literary tradi-
ton.
Such stories no more pass muster,
with the knowing, than do Snobs, who
pose as gentlemen. Despite their cool
technique, almost too perfect they lack
the divine spark. They are Shake
speare with the purple patches" left
out, left out necessarily because their
writers did not possess the genius to
put them in.
Those books which possess this
divine something, which places them
squarely in the literary tradition
down the years, are the books to keep
up with, and happy is the reader who
concentrates on them.
There are thousands of them, too
so many that no one reader Will ever
be able to read them all. The wise
booklover will make no such attempt
Foregoing the task of trying to "keer
UP with the new books" he will con-
centrate on certain aspects OF lltera-
ture which appeal to him.
HhAS@~D~N~--
and their best friends (the thousands
who clamor after new" books because
they are new the task of winnowine
the wheat from the chaff.
After the bright boys and girls get
done with them, the ones which stand
the gaff of time. which last through
edition after edition, and which finally
find their way into the conversations OF
the many, will come down to him with
the sure approval of Father Time.
In the meantime he will have been
going gayly about his self-appointed
pleasant task of reading some of the
old good books. He will always be years
behind the procession, but it is a pro-
cession with which he does not choose
TO associate himself.
Let those who will parade-he sticks
to his own way of reading, knowing
that every book is new book, If you
haven't read it. How can one come
to a book with greater interest than
to Lucretius' "Of the Nature of Things.
It was written 1000 years ago, but
what difference does that make? 1t is
just as new. just as fresh as If 1t had
been printed yesterday. To read Num-
roe's translation is to keep up with
hooks