PACK A GOOD BOOK.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 321, 31 December 1936, Page 2

PACK A GOOD BOOK.

First Requisite Of a Jolly . Holiday.,

Book-lovers, especially those who are going on holiday at the new year, must not forget that the Stratford Library closes to-night and will not re-open until Monday, January 4. What, it may be asked, is the first requisite for an enjoyable holiday? The answers given to this question by-pedpie“who might be supposed to have judgment are almost unanimous. Cfood weather,- pleasant scenes, congenial company and all the other circumstances of which the average holi-day-maker things must come second. The to ;be packed in the bag when one is setting out on holiday is a good book. The weather may fail, -the company may be uncongenial,- the scenery may be shrouded in mists,; the golf course under water, the tennis court unplayable, the swimming; pool full of mud, the meals Indigestible, the fleas and sandflies unbearable— all else may go wrong, but if there is a good book in the bag one' still the first requisite of an enjoyable holiday.

A good;book does not mean a “thriller” that can be skimmed through in an hour, fit means a book that has to be read. The famous Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol, read right through Boswell’s “Life of Johnson” fifty times and Boswell’s “Johnson” has to be read sentence by sentence if one is to get the full flavour of -it. But a good book does not necessarily mean a classic. There is nothing better on holiday than a good novel, one in which the r'eader is interested in the characterisation and the dialogue as well as in the plot. The first chapter and the last of the common thrill-er-tell the whole story, but a good hovel is one that holds the reader’s attention throughout. The reader must be able to forget the weather and the dull company and become absorbed in the story.

Books do no one harm. The Lord Chief Justice once said that the persons in two hemispheres whose characters had been destroyed by “improvident reading” could be counted on the fingers on one hand. And of course there is nothing like a good book for keeping one out of mischief. But there are really two kinds of books necessary for holiday reading. There is the longish book with a continuous story for dull days when one cannot go out of doors; and there is the “bedside book,” to be picked up in odd moments and enjoyed in short readings. He who habitually reads good books is, in truth, on constant holiday ,and he -who reads them not as a habit will more than ever need them when his holiday comes.