Evening star., 1931-06-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcERELL.

If he sees the name Of Sinclair
Lewis anywhere. he knows that the rest
Of him viii be right alongside.
This is necessary, for the largest
books, even, have a way Of eluding you
when you look for them, especially in a
hurry.
To be unable to find a priced book
when one wants 1t is one of the petty
annoyances of life, In which there are
so many trivial annoyances.
Waking up on q cold morning and
finding ones slippers kicked clean
across the cold floor
Taking a bath and discovering that
there y not o towel on the rack
Having ShoeStrtng break and be-
ing clear out Of shoestrings-"
Watching cream drip down the side
Of the cream pitcher
Having ones toes stepped on by fat
lady In the bus
Being stung by bee
Saying exactly the wrong thing at
the wrong time
Attempting to light q cigarette with
out fire in any form
Having the bottom drop out of bag
of oysters in a public conveyance
Or Sample Of ones prize grapefruit
roll down an aisle at a symphony con-
cert
These are some of the petty annoy
ance5 happening to every one every
day. Of any one doubts the last two
given above we, would say that the
last happened to the writer once upon
q time; the next to the last, we saw
happen aboard a bus)
In the list also must go the inability
to find given book ina given place at
a given time. Books should have their
!I51s pIlS1ceS' and kept there as much as pos
Arrangement by subjects offers many
possibilities, and may be combined with
all other methods.
If one Is interested In gardening, for
instance. and picks up a good book on
the subject now and then, in time he
will find himself in possession of q
fair little shelf of such books.
The time comes when he purchases
several new shrubs for his garden, and
his mind Immediately turns to an
article about the subject which he read
in certain book several years ago.
If his gardening books are scattered
all over the house he may or may not
be able to find the book he wants. If
all such works are arranged on one
shelf, he knows that by going there
everything he has on the subject is at
his command.
Often there will arise a conflict be-
tween arrangement by authors and sub
Jects, since sometimes writer does a
garden book one year. q philosophical
work the next and novel the next.
Whether 1t is best, then, to divide
this author. as it were, and keep his
various works in different parts OF the
library. or to keep him intact, in a
scramble as he wrote, is matter for
each booklover to decide for himself.
Ordinarily, authors are not so versa
tile. NovelistS mostly write novels,
playwrightS plays, horticultural writer's
garden books. If upon occasion one
finds it necessary to put one volume of
an author in another section of his
library, he perhaps will have no diff
Guilty at all in remembering that he
did So
A careful lover of books will arrange
his own cases. even to the extent of
taking out the books every now and
then and busting the shelves; and he
will do this. not alone for the. sake of
cleanliness and hygiene, but even more
because it acquaints him sfresh with
the physical location of his small treas
ures, and makes sure that he will find
what he wants when he wants IL