THEPOCKET UNIVERSITYVOLUME XXIII
EDITED BYDR. LYMAN ABBOTT,ASA DON DICKINSONAND OTHERS
BOOKS FOR STUDY AND READING
By Lyman Abbott
THE PURPOSE OF READING
By John Macy
How TO GET THE BEST Out OF BOOKS
By Richard Le Gallienne
THE GUIDE TO DAILY READING
By Asa Don Dickinson
GENERAL INDEX OF AUTHORS
GENERAL INDEX OF TITLES
BY LYMAN ABBOTT
There are three services which books may render in the home: they maybe ornaments, tools, or friends.
I was told a few years ago the following story which is worth retellingas an illustration of the use of books as ornaments. A millionaire whohad one house in the city, one in the mountains, and one in the South,wished to build a fourth house on the seashore. A house ought to have alibrary. Therefore this new house was to have a library. When the housewas finished he found the library shelves had been made so shallow thatthey would not take books of an ordinary size. His architect proposedto change the bookshelves. The millionaire did not wish the changemade, but told his architect to buy fine bindings of classical booksand glue them into the shelves. The architect on making inquiriesdiscovered that the bindings would cost more than slightly shop-worneditions of the books themselves. So the books were bought, cut in twofrom top to bottom about in the middle, one half thrown away, and theother half replaced upon the shelves that the handsome backs presentedthe same appearance they would have presented if the entire book hadbeen there. Then the glass doors were locked, the key to the glassdoors lost, and sofas and chairs and tables put against them. Thus themillionaire has his library furnished with handsome bindings and theseI may add are quite adequate for all the use which he wishes to make ofthem.
This is a rather extreme case of the use of books as ornaments, but itillustrates in a bizarre way what is a not uncommon use. There is thisto be said for that illiterate millionaire: well-bound books areexcellent ornaments. No decoration with wall paper or fresco can make aparlor as attractive as it can be made with low bookshelves filled withworks of standard authors and leaving room above for statuary, orpictures, or the inexpensive decoration of flowers picked from one’sown garden. I am inclined to think that the most attractive parlor Ihave ever visited is that of a bookish friend whose walls are thusfurnished with what not only delights the eye, but silently invites themind to an inspiring companionship.
More important practically than their use as ornaments is the use ofbooks as tools. Every professional man needs his special tools—thelawyer his law books, the doctor his medical books, the minister histheological treatises and his Biblical helps. I can always tell when Igo into a clergyman’s study by looking at his books whether he isliving in the Twentieth Century or in the Eighteenth. Tools do not makethe man, but they make his work and so show what the man is.
Every home ought to have some books that are tools and the childrenshould be taught how to use them. There should