THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1906 OUR CIRCULATING LIBRARIES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7, 15 February 1906, Page 17

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1906 OUR CIRCULATING LIBRARIES

Ifii^n?) OWEBOD\ once asked good old Ilobbes why w^iy** he did not, read mure. ' Head more !' he ij§s-ss^v exclaimed ; 'if I had read as many books as other men, I should have been as ignor£§gyoif anlj as ot -her men.' The saying may, seem a jgx^*^ paradox ; but it is particularly true of a xf^j^ large class of the readers that form the ~ clientele of our public and circulating libraries. The cultured and scholarly vice-president of the Dunedin Athenaeum (Mr. T. Whitson) gave an address last week at the annual meeting of the institute which is sufficient to shake one's faith in the benefit of public libraries in this country, unless the mass of the subscribers are to experience a change of heart and radically alter their reading-habits. There is reading and reading. There is the reading that widens the range of experience and stores tho mind with helpful thoughts an<J useful knowledge. But there is also a kind of reading that, in the words of Samuel Smiles, is merely ' the

indulgence of a sort of epicurism or intellectual dramdrinking, imparting a grateful exeiicment for the moment, without the slightest effect in improving or enriching the mind or building up character.' And, judging by Mr. Whitson's words, this latter is the/ class of reading— or rather of intellectual hasheesh— U\ at is mostly indulged in by the habitue of the circulating library. For this seems to be a case in which, for this country at least, we may safely assume that the experience of one centre of population stands for all. The facts for which Mr. Whitson vouches may be summarily stated as follows : The chief demand is for fiction. 'Of the total issue of books, works of fiction account for 89.2 per cent., the remaining 11 per cent, being spread over eleven other departments ; biography coming next to fiction, although only representing 2£ per cent. It will make it more easily appreciated if I state that during four months, out of a total circulation) of 22,716 books, 20,281 were novels.' ' And lam sorry to say,' added Mr. Whitson. after an exhaustive analysis of the* circulation of various authors, ' ,that 'the quality of some books which are in very great demand is of the poorest.' The best writers of fiction are left in comparative neglect. So are works on science and 1 belles lettrcs.' And, speaking generally, ' compared with fiction, the circulation of books in other departments of literature is productive of sorrowful reflections.' Judging from another lemark of Mr. Whitson's, a ' professor of books ' would seem to be one of the urgent needs of the hour in our circulating libraries ' The reasons,' said he, ' which induce subscribers to take out books are many and curious. Only a small minority ask 'for works from a perusal of the catalogxie., They either ask the librarian to recommend a book, or they, are attracted by the appearance and title of a book as it lies before them on the table ; or in walking lound the shelves they see books that attract them, and a curious fact is that the books on the shelves in a line with the eye are mostly favored. The shelves abo\e or below the line of vision are neglected. Then the circulation of a book is largely affected by the favor it finds in the eyes of early readers who recommend it to others, or by reference to it in the newspapers. The condition of a book also influences its circulation ; some members will rather take a copy of a book they do not know than a soiled copy of one that is favorably known. For this reason the novels in largest circulation are mot.tly those of which there are a number of copies." All this makes melancholy reading. The need of the day is not so much more leaders as better 1 readers. As matters stand, it seems that our public circulating libraries are more of a calamity than a blessing to the community, and that, to meet a certain taste, Carnegie's benefactions are very likely to be in part expended in packing library shelves with namby-pamby and sensational ten M-rate hetiion— wiith yellow-backed agonies brimful of intrigue, mystery, and murder. Of the two kinds of works of fiction that seem most in demand, 1/r. Pryde says : 'If they, are namby-pamby, reading them is like sipping jelly-water ; if they >arc sensational, they are like Mrs. Squeers' posset of brimstone and treacle. In both cases they destroy the mental appetite, and make it loathe all solid food.' The great mass of the novel-reading public arc finical about their tea and beer and beef and tobacco. But they seem to have no standard by which to judge of the quality of the books on which they feast their minds. The difficulty of choice is increased by the overwhelming number of .volumes of fiction that come tumbling from the press. It is still farther enhanced by the prevailing habit of devouring (not merely reading) novels— eating up circulating libraries, so to speak,, and then, like Oliver Twist, coming up serenely for more. For many of those to whom Mr. Whitson refers, novel-reading is

not so much a recreation as a passion— something akin to the taste of topers for liery waters, and of AngloIndians for red-hot condiments. One of the pressing needs of our day is the cultivation of a conscience in books. And, after that, the ' professor of books ' to guide it along paths that shall be safe and pleasant and profitable. In the meantime we commend to our readers a few of the homely, though somewhat superficial, instructions given by Edmund Wcngraf a few years ago in the ' Lite-ratur-Zeitung ' of Vienna. Ilerr Wengraf recommends all and sundry not to read (1) books with catchpenny titles ; (2) novels in more than one volume ; (3) works on popular science, the authors of which arc not known to us as reliable ; and (1) book's of which we have read puffs or several unanimous notices. Attention to even these simple instructions would banish from the hands of our people many of those worthless or risky books whose only mission is to ingrain the habit of mental idleness and dissipation, even when they do not (in the words of Perreyve) ' corrupt the mind and blot out the boundary lines of honor.' And finally : 'Be careful of the books you read,' says Paxton Mood, ' as of the company you keep ; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.'