Evening star., 1931-06-27

How shall books best be arranged In
the home?
We suppose every one has his own
system, but there are certain bookshelf
arrangements which may be regarded as
fundamental.
Books may be placed in the home
cases by subjects, by authors, or as you
please. We know one gentleman who
keeps his by chronology, from the FIRST
which he purchased as q child, to one
Ile purchased last week.
There Is another Washingtonian who
believes that the best shelf arrange
ment Is by hobbies, so that thorough
investigation Of his books shows his
avocations from the earliest times.
These are pleasantries however;
most of us will stick to one of the three
more common methods, either by au-
thors, by subjects. or by nothing much
at all, higgledy- -piggledy.
There Is in the average home no need
for library sciences, as interesting as
that study Is, ard as necessary as IT is
in keeping track Of a large collection of
books.
The booklover with a modest fortune
in books knows every volume he pos
Sesses intimately, and is able to lay his
hands on the one he wants without un-
due delay, In case OF need, because he
uses system.
Even a few thousand books will Gre
ate problem, for no matter how much
one loves his books, unless he has some
simple system Of arrangement, he will
find himself perplexed in finding the
one he wants at the moment he
wants it.
There can be little doubt that most
men and women who love books be-
yond the liking OF the great bulk Of the
populace for them are impatient crea-
lures.
Why this is so we do not know, un-
less the booklover realizes just a little
bit better than others the value Of
beauty and light, and necessarily has q
quicker resentment of all those disturb
ing factors in life, especially modern
life, which make for noise and con-
fusion and poorer living in general.
X
Arrangement by authors is favorite
method in the home library, and
rightly so, because 1t enables a man to
place his hand on the book he wants
when he wants it.
There is no hunting around for that
copy of Lord jim" the greatest
preachment on duty ever penned, be-
cause it is right there dn its place with
the remainder of Conrad's stories.
Is not that the poorest name for an
author any man ever had? And 1t was
all the more unfortunate, since he Sc
lected it himself.
Some way a reader feels whether or
not an authors name harmonizes with
what he writes. Who, for instance,
would ask that Jack London be other
wise?
But Conrad smacks more Of banking
or real estate. 1t Is not a writer's
name, and even the great Pole who
wrote such fine English stories could
not make it so.
There 1t is, however, 30-some times
repeated on the covers of as many VOL
unes bearing the precious freight Of
his ability.
And the owner, when he wants any
Of Conrad, knows where to turn SINH
larly, he may find his Poe, his Steven
son. his Dickens, his Scott, his De
Maupassant, his Dumas, his o. Henry,
his zola. his Hemingway, his Lewis
The two moderns have not been coll
lected, as yet, but the knowing friend
Of his books keeps their works together
in one section of his case II he wants
to convince somebody that the opening
chapter of "Babbitt" Is great prose he
does not have to run all over the house
to find It,