Evening star., 1937-05-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL,

Browsing In big book store is an
altogether delightful thing, provided
that the proprietor and his clerks are
booklovers themselves.
Lacking that, it is not much fun, for
everybody seems to be suspicious, as II
afraid the browser Is going to slip a
volume under his coat and walk out
| with it.
In the right sort Of establishment the
honest lover of books can have the
time of his life" almost any hour he
can spare.
He is not killing time.
Far from it!
He Is making time live.
Books make time alive for the person
who enjoys them.
1t is easy to understand why some
unfortunate persons do not like to
read" as they say.
1t is mostly matter of Cd innate
disposition, and co education There
are some types OF mind that no matter
how hard they try, never get the knack
| Of reading They may enable their pos
SCISSORS to make a million dollars, or
excel in sports, but they cannot make
them like to read.
This is no discredit to them. Only an
education-mad age would dare say II
is, and it has been said very few times.
Lack of the proper sort OF education
also is responsible for persons who do
not care to read, genuinely and honestly.
This Is mostly matter OF eyeSight. 1t
is said that eyes were never made for
modern work, but only for use in the
chase, at war, and looking at the far
horizon for the appearance of enemies.
1t may be imagined that there are
hundreds of persons who never get the
right hang of eye use for reading.
There also is to be taken into considera-
ton the fact that pleasurable reading
requires certain quickneSs Of percep-
ton, both physical and mental. This
is not given to all persons. The very
| fact that the eye chaSes after itself
word after word, in reading, often
| taking in an entire line or sentence at
a glance, means that the mind is noti-
| fed that it must hustle up. Now some
| minds cannot hustle. They may be
very good minds, but the ability to
''Wlsecrack," to make an instant, and
what IS commonly regarded as a clever
retort, is beyond them. 1
The eye itself is just a part of the
brain. One spot in it is actually that,
a prolongation of cranial tissue We do
not see with our eyes, but with our
brains. Hence it is impossible for the
mind which is what is commonly called
SLOW to enjoy reading, which is, by
the very smallness comparatively of
type, an activity which requires speed
Educational methods, in themselves,
old-fashioned or new-fashioned, we be-
lieve, seldom go at teaching reading as
an art, which, properly interpreted,
means as an enjoyment.
The task" so called and so under
| stood, can never be entertainment. Who
does not remember how he hated "A
Tale of Two Cities" in school, and how
he enjoyed it in later life?
The book store browser is he or she
who loves books because at home with
| them, then.
| He is, she is. in the last analysis, the
| book buyer Of the ages.
There may be some abuse, but, in the
main: The person who likes them we'll
| enough to look them over for minutes,
hours at time. often with longing in
heart and mind for particular volume,
is the person who in the end buys all
of them
Thousands, hundreds of thousands,
millions of volumes, pouring from the
presses every year, not only in this