The Guide to Reading — the Pocket University Volume XXIII by Various
page 21 of 103 (20%)
page 21 of 103 (20%)
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intelligently one does it, the farther and more easily one can go. In
the best reading--that is, the most thoughtful reading of the most thoughtful books--attention is necessary. It is even necessary that we should read some works, some passages, so often and with such close application that we commit them to memory. It is said that the habit of learning pieces by heart is not so prevalent as it used to be. I hope that this is not so. What! have you no poems by heart, no great songs, no verses from the Bible, no speeches from Shakespeare? Then you have not begun to read, you have not learned how to read. We have said enough, perhaps, of the theories of reading. The one lesson that seems most obvious is that we must come close to literature. HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF BOOKS By RICHARD LE GALLIENNE One is sometimes asked by young people panting after the waterbrooks of knowledge: "How shall I get the best out of books?" Here indeed, is one of those questions which can be answered only in general terms, with possible illustrations from one's own personal experience. Misgivings, too, as to one's fitness to answer it may well arise, as wistfully looking round one's own bookshelves, one asks oneself: "Have I myself got the best out of this wonderful world of books?" It is almost like |
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