HOLIDAY READING

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 29 (Supplement)

HOLIDAY READING

Wide Variety Offered This Season For most people Christmas time means holiday time, and holidays mean leisure, leisure to be employed in the thousand ( and one ways that may strike the fancy. But whatever the holiday maker may intend doing, he will find that much time can be filled in by one thing only, the reading of a book suited to the mood of the momen t. That is one reason why books always prove so acceptable as presents. One reason among many, of course; their permanence is an asset, and considered only as an article of furniture a boot has a decided value. Since the publishers have set out to weaken the defences of potential readers by encasing their wares in brightly-covered wrappers, the appearance of a room well-stocked with books has become greatly enhanced. Unfortunately, however,’ the outward sign is not necessarily indicative of inward grace. "You can’t judge a book by its cover” is still a maxim with a fair amount of truth. Just- at the moment New Zealand is experiencing the effect of the English autumn output. Books are flowing into the country faster than ever before, and there certainly seems to be no slump in the book business. It has been said that novels have no longer their former popularity. They are being crowded out by more ‘‘serious’ works. Yet the stream of novels does not seem to be drying up at all; quite the reverse. Most of the best known novelists have produced a book this season.

For all this spate of fiction there does appear to be a growing demand for books about travel and economics, and world affairs generally, a demand which publishers arc doing their best to meet. One of the most surprising fashions of the last six months or so is the appearance of compendious one-volume summaries of popular knowledge of every sort. Usu ally they are called "Outlines.” and their attractive covers hold out the hope to the layman that he may become a specialist in economics, astronomy, psychology, home cookery, or whatever the subject may be, all for the expenditure of a few shillings and a minimum of intellectual effort.

There seems also to bo a definite revival of interest in religion. Orthodoxy may have been overthrown, churchgoers may be fewer than in a previous age. men’s faith in a personal God has no doubt been shaken; but the springs of religious feeling are still powerful—of that the evidence is overwhelming. The bookshops are as good an index as any to the trend of the times, and they, just now, show a remarkably wide range of books on religious topics.