Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-13

A booklover gets more satisfaction
and less disappointment out of books
than from any other kind of purchases
The old maxim The buyer beware
happily has gone out of all sorts OF
business.
Service and satisfaction have ousted
1t. People no longer need hang onto
their pocketbooks as If the devil were
after It.
There must remain, however, q GER
tain chance with every purchase. One
can never be C%kte sure how new suit
is going to strike him after he has
worn 1t for a week.
Rugs, furniture, art objects for the
home-these and hundred others offer
possibilities for later dissatisfaction, not
through any fault in themselves, but
owing to the fact that home and store
are different.
who is there, for instance, who has
not had the experience of buying a rug
to find that somehow it did not go
with the room furnishings?
Even experienced buyers often go
wrong in their selection of such an
object of utility and beauty as a mod
ern lamp.
In the store 1t looked good: in the
home 1t does not balance with lamps
already there. Perhaps the shade Is q
trifie too dark or the shape too different
from the models already present.
Sometimes piece of furniture, heau-
tiful in itself, Is so surprising that it
makes the old look terribly old indeed.
In such a case, If one does not have the
money to- refurnish the entire room,
often 1t is wisest to take back the new.
X 4
These common sense objections do
not often apply to the b. xlover and
his books. Perhaps II may be said that
this means nothing more than that he
Is an expert in the selection of books.
One as deeply conversant with chairs,
for instance, could make no mistake in
the selection of a new one for the living
room. A lamp manufacturer would
have no difaculty in choosing precisely
the right one for o niche at home.
While there may be some truth In
this, there would seem to be aspects of
entire difference in the relation Of the
booklover to his books. Chief among
them 10 the fact that the book Is
mainly q thing of the mind A bocS
comes about as near being spiritual as
any commodity in the world.
1t is upon this rare quality that the
satisfaction Of the booklover rests. He
does not select his new book on any
other basis II he is wise. He has behind
him background of more or less solid
knowledge of his own likes and dislikes,
and If he remains true to these he can
scarcely make a mistake.
In the selection of his books he is not
so likely to be le | aside from true merit
by the gaudy trifle of ornanentation.
Novelty Sttll less exertS an influence
on him. He returns again and again to
"the Book" knowing that It is very,
very old and very, very good.
He admires the Revised Version, and
is willing to admit that the scholars who
compiled 1t worked valiantly to give the
reader a more correct rendering. of the
originals, but at the same time he knows
that he likes the so-called Authorized
Version best, on account Of the true
majesty of rendition.
In places it almost seems as II the
translators Of the Revised had gone out
Of their way to spoil certain beautiful
readings which, from the standpoint of
English pure and undef1led," have
come to have Q place in the minds and
he IS of all readers. The glow which a
certain beautiful appropriateness gives
Is lost in the new.
4
The very restrictions Of the bookcase
make the selection of new volumes not
only pleasure in itself but one re-