Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

, shall meet along the way are added in
ducementS; surely no one would mini
mize them. Placing them behind does
not relegate them to inferior positions.
! 1t merely attempts to place them il
! their true positions, in order that those
Of us left in civilization will not put
tlfe accent where 1t does not belong.
The reasons for reading at home are
just the same as in the snow and ice
of the waste places thousands of miles
| away. Let us do away with the hokum
of reading, the childish desire to keep
| up with the new books, the futile am
bition to discuss the --latest" with our
friends, or even the wholesome longing
to be helped by what we read.
No one by taking thought can add a
cublt to his stature, nor can he become
a manager or even assistant manager by
the book route alone. TomorroW'S beau
t1ful hostess will not smile at you be-
cause today you read the famous,
worthy five-foot shelf.
Read but a one-foot shelf because
| you want to, the chances are large that
| If you do talk about it you will talk
convincingly. OF course, the chances
are 100 to l that you will never talk
about 1t at all. Tomorrows beautiful
hostess will speak only of automobiles,
fashions and music, and books will be
! IS1L oGN6TGly
Read, therefore, because you want to
read. That way true happiness lies. A
book Is something between two minds.
AS far as the minds of author and
reader are concerned, all the thousands
or millions OF other minds which may
meet there do not count at all. It is in
| tereSting to know that book is best
seller" but, after all, 1t really has moth
ing to do with what the author wrote
ana what you read, has it?
| X X X X
He who must have recourse per-
| petually to outside authority for his
reading has yet to know the Joy OF
| plunging forth, amid books, as Byrd'S
men do in snow.
| One may be an explorer at home, too
One must read because books interest
him. Some outside assistance may be
| accepted. but. in the main, interest is
the secret OF this as Of many other af-
fairs. Without genuine inside interest
in books, as books, as reading, one
merely puts up bluff
Lastly, the home explorer in the vast
| territories of bookdom should do his ex-
| ploring for entertainment. He should
put aside his old Puritanic fears of en-
tertainment, per Sc, and welcome II
with open arms.
Few books ever have been written for
any other reason than because the writer
wanted to. Interest in some subject
was at the bottom of his book. The
author afterward built up for himself,
in all innocence, variety of fine rea-
sons why he wrote. He wanted to help
mankind. He desired to right wrong
or uplift the downtrodden, or throw
| light on a dark path.
The curious thing is that all of his
reasons are true enough, but behind
them all stands the one great reason:
He wrote because he couldn't help
writing. He was interested in his sub
ject. He wrote primarily because he
wanted to write, because his subject
interested him, because the writing was
a species of entertainment for him.
Hero worship on the part of the read
| ing public led, in many cases, to a
building up of literary tradition. 1t
was fashionable to picture poets, wild
! Of hair and eye, their right hands
thrust beneath flowing tie. declaim-
| ing in rapture to high-flying clouds
The truth Is that poet, as any writer,
composes because he wants to. because
| it amuses Him to do so. because the
| subject interests him. To know poets
or other writers it is necessary to read
| in the same way.