Evening star., 1933-01-28

brary and pick at random many books
which have no real place In it.
| Yet II he suggested a. much to the
owner, the latter would manage to dis
cover ct least half o dozen reasons
why he did not agree with the custer
Judgment. Boiled down, however. they
would amount to nothing more than
this, that the volumes were there, and
looked well, and were going to stay
there.
All well and good. but then there Is
no use to complain about lack of shelf
room. It Is not shelf room, but weed
ing out, that u needed, in most In
stances.
Housewives used to call such a dras-
tic procedure Kidding out" or red
ding out," In the vernacuiar.
| It is nowhere needed more than on
q bookshelf. For books do grow old !;
they have their time, and pass out of
existence as living things.
Some OF them do not, Of course.
Such are called masterpieces and
| classics.
! They are timeless and are never
moved.
They possess immortality.
In addition, every booklover has
classics Of his own which he treasures
because Of certain profound and NOV
ing appeals to himself alone
These are the books which do not
grow old, which deserve the places they
occupy.
Nothing is palmer, however, than
that all books do not fulfill these con-
ditions.
Some books are useful upon occasion,
but the occasion does not occur often.
Why should they clutter up the
shelves?
Then there are fashions in books
There are trends, such as are incor-
porated In various popular novels These
books seem great upon publication, with
the accompanying ballyhoo. but some
how the passage Of the years puts them
in their place. They fall down and
down and out" club Of bookdom, the
books which made a stir in their day
but which are for various reasons un-
worthy of being cherished forever.
The most perplexing question faced
by the home booklover in relation to
his comparatively limited housing comes
when he decides that q revision of his
lists Is what is needed more than new
shelves.
What about these old hobby books
books upon some single subject, out of
which has passed, at least for him.
the old-tine fervor and devotion?
Life Is stage Of hobbies, in one
sense; perhaps only the lobbyist will
understand this.
To such man. however, life is di-
vided into q number of sectors, each
one occupied and glorified by q par
ticular interest in some one hobby.
As the years pass. some of the en-
thusiasm wanes as newer interests come
to take the place Of the old ones. This
will not mean. however, that the old
love is forgotten. Far from it. Above
all do its books keep it alive ever in
memory. The booklover is able, by
looking over his shelves, to pass in re-
view all the hobbies Of his entire life,
from childhood down.
This fact alone gives his shelves a
perennial interest lacking in the home
collections Of those who practice no
hobbies. who are not alive to the
smaller vital interests OF life, life in
which all things, properly seen. are
vital enough.
1t is not suggested that one get rid
OF such books. They must be kept,
What he may do. however, in regard
to them, IS to move them to less con-
sptcuous quarters. This is one sort of
Kidding out" and a good one since il
secures results, but does not deprive
one altogether of priced old volumes
with their memories