Books and Reading; Or, What Books Shall I Read and How Shall I Read Them?

by Noah Porter

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXII. THE LIBRARY. Readers of books desire to become the owners of books. The pleasure and advantage which are derived from the use of a volume, prompt to the wish that it may be constantly within reach. Hence, books like everything else which is desirable come to be sought for and valued as property. The child is not satisfied with using a picture-book, he must call the book his own. The persistent litterateur and the veteran scholar value no purchase or gift so highly as a rare or elegant volume. The enthusiastic and devoted reader, if he has the means and the spirit of independence, usually becomes the buyer and owner of books. Every reader gathers about himself something of a library. Every community so soon as it rises above the most pressing and immediate wants, feels the need of a collection of books which may supply its higher necessities. We cannot therefore properly dismiss our theme of Books and Reading without also considering The Library. We begin with the personal or private Library. The thought which first suggests itself is the very obvious one, that the size of a library when collected by a single person for his private use depends on his means, his liberality, his feeling of independence, his duties and relations to others, and the comparative estimate which he places upon books; not upon any one of these, but upon all united. A man comparatively poor, may contrive to acquire a larger collection of books than a man who is rich, simply because he cares more for them, and in order that he may possess them is willing to forego many other possessions and enjoyments. On the other hand a man of ample means and of decided literary tastes may deny himself the convenience and luxury of a library for such reasons of duty...

118 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2006

About the author

Rev. Noah Thomas Porter III was an American writer, philosopher and lexicographer, president of Yale College from 1871 to 1886.

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