BOOKS AS GOOD COMPANIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

BOOKS AS GOOD COMPANIONS

GUIDES AND TEACHERS “If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy arc limited.” So said a famous philosopher, and he was right. Good books arc, first and foremost, good companions and faithful friends. They are the finest teachers, for they combine all the wisdom of the ages, from the Bible down to the latest works of contemporary novelists. After that, books arc expert guides to foreign lands. Who has not felt the sting of tho salt sea when reading Conrad, or •seen the wonders of the four corners of the earth by reading a good travel book? Take a book that deals with a vital social problem. It is good to appreciate other people’s difficulties, particularly when those difficulties are explained in an interesting manner. It is better to read a good book three times than to read three indifferent or inferior books. Train your boy to appreciite a well-written and instructive book. Don’t forbid him to read “trash,” for that will only make him all the more eager to do so. On the other hand, see that he has every opportunity of reading (he best literature. The finest gift you can bestow upon a boy who is ji? t beginning to ask awkward questions is a year’s subscription to good library. Librarians can often do more towards moulding a young man’s character than schoolmasters, for the latter are teachers and the former are advisers. It is not going too far to say that any man can educate himself to occupy one of the highest positions in the land by intensive reading. A good book is a guide, philosopher and friend.