RAPID READING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 89, 11 October 1913, Page 13

RAPID READING

ADVANTAGES AND DANGEES. Those who read for information are apt to read rapidly and skippingly, picking up facts here and there, but almost automatically rejecting what does not interest them or does not bear upon the purpose (says the Springfield Republican in a discussion of "The Decay ! of Reading"). This is a valuable art, one that makes it possible to run over vast quantities of books and magazines, see what they are about, and acquire wide and varied miscellaneous information while learning where the facts on many subjects can be found when they are needed. But the trouble is that this kind of reading seems to be getting the upper hand, and to be invading provinces that belong to the other type of reader, who likes to taste the full literary flavour of what he reads, and naturally can cover less ground. How harmful the vogue of the novel and of the fiction magazine has been to this sort of reading can hardly be overstated. There are many people who are perfectly capable of en- I joying the leisurely study of a good | book, but have so inveterate a skipping habit that they find it irksome to hold the attention to details. If the ordinary, novel is to be read at all it ought, certainly, to be read rapidly; its stuff is v noV good enough to Btand close scrutiny and sharp criticism. There is a legitimate place for this light, effortless reading, which is often a very good way to rest the mind, and is often recommended by doctors to rundown patients. But literature is something more than a spa, and too many people overdo this sort of thing, some of them rarely reading a novel or story clear through, but dipping in and changing to something else as _ soon as interest flags. Such a practice is naturally not favourable to the faculty of at- , tention. J