Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-11-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACER ELL.

Here is a book which has done me
good I hope it will serve you well.
Here is a book l found immensely
interesting / feel sure that If you
happen to be in the same mood as I
was at the time l read it you may find
it equally So
This Is as far as any one has a right
to 60 But every reader knows from
painful experience that a great MANY
persons like to cram their opinions on
books, as of other matters, down the
Threats of the innocent.
Let no reader, therefore, swallow a
book which does not appeal to him.
There are too many to read for that!
So many thousands Of volumes are
printed every year, so many millions
have been printed, so many hundreds
of thousands yet remain to see the light
Of day, that no one reader can afford
to waste his time over those which are
obviously not meant for him.
re S-1L haze too much to do with his
own
Do you as a reader know your own
books? A surprisingly large number of
otherwise earnest men and women evi-
IDENTIFY do not if one may Judge from
requests for information on what TO
read
He who reads to suit himself never
has to ask any one else what to read
He knows.
His great difficulty lies in finding
time and ways to read what his own
desires tell him to read.
Not that he does not value a hint
frcm some person for whose opinion he
has respect, but in the main he wants
no advice as to what TO read, only as
to how to read. or how others read
In this field every one can receive
real aid. because every reader. If he Is
faithful to his first love among hobbies,
stumbles into one or more good habits
or reading helps.
Even here, however, he must be wary,
testing every new method by his own
likes and dlSliEes. Some one will say
with great positiveness. I find reading
quickly is the only way" This may be
his practice. and the only way to read
for him 1t may not suit the next
reader at all 1t is said that Theodore
Roosevelt could grasp the contents Of
an entire page merely b. looking AT 1t
Clearly this ability does not belong to
every reader.
The question of speed has been very
much abused in our great land. espe-
Cially when il is taken out of the realm
of physics and put into that of the
mind We want even our radio speakers
to be rapid fire" SO much so in some
cases that they tire many a listener
who does ret wish his listening TO be
placed solely on cross country basis.
x
One ought to be. if possible, COM
Portable Whcn one reads. Here. again
every one is his own law and order. II
a reader has more physical comfort
reading in bed, he should read there
nor mind what any one else says about
II This was the reading habit OF some
of the worlds greatest writers and
readers II IS INDUCED in today By
Thousands Of persons who are IL nc
sense lazy but simply feel that one 5
best reading is done when there is
little friction as possible between the
inner and the outer man.
People know that books are not lust
so much reading matter alone. They
realize that a love Of them is more than
Just an interest in words. The appear
ancc and weight OF certain books may
far outrank their reading value as
large as that may be The how Of
reading includes many mental and
physical details. which constitute in
their aggregate real part Of the Joy
o. reading The keynote Is TO read hap
PLY which is Just another way OF say
ing read what YOU please.