LIFE OR LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17836, 3 May 1926, Page 11

LIFE OR LITERATURE.

CAN ONE HAVE TOO MUCH READING? “Too much reading—of the' right kind? Impossible!” affirms the highbrow. Nevertheless, I venture to maintain that too much reading—even of the “right kind”—can lead one into a rut, as surely as too little acquaintance with books. Most people who read a great deal are naturally attracted to books and writers of a certain genre; to authors who think as they think, observe as they observe, feel as they feel. They become tremendously familiar, no ddubt, with certain types of persons as portrayed in their favourite literature and with certain styles in writing. It is possible to become so selfishly absorbed in books as to grow most cowardly aloof or indifferent to the people who actually live; the real, breathing flesh and blood by which inveterate readers profess so often to be bored. It does not seem to occur to them that their pet writers, in order to write as they do. have had to establish all manner of contacts before they could create a successful novel. To portray a bore accurately, they have obviousl}' had to suffer bores gladly. They have had to hobnob with all the minor as well as the major characters in their pages; and evidently they have had to do it thoroughly and systematically fo achieve their effects. Your class of person who gets “all the society I want from books, thank you!” is apt to overlook this salient point when condemning, in superior fashion, the folks who prefer life at first hand to even the best-drawn portraits in the cleverest books. Quite a number of non-readers, I warrant! possess more subtle accuracy in summing up human nature than many M. bookworm whose only knowledge of his fellows has been gained through the medium of the written word. I’ve known a charwoman give a more clever summing up of a feminine personality than a self-styled psychologist !