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LITBRABT mTELLIGBNOB 1164 BOOKS AND RUMO...
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St. Dunstan's House, E.C., October 1, 1890.
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T -* * ¦ HE thoug paradoxical h this is ...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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¦ - ¦ ¦ .. 1 1 ^ * ' . ... > jr L , «¦{ U 64 The Publishers' Circular Oct . i , igoo
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Litbrabt Mtelligbnob 1164 Books And Rumo...
LITBRABT mTELLIGBNOB 1164 BOOKS AND RUMOURS OF BOOKS 1166
NOTES AND NEWS .... 1167 CONTINENTAL NOTES ., 1169 BOOKSELLERS OF TO-DAY . —XI .
MR . GEO . PHILLIP 80 N , J . P 1170 THE AUTHOR'S MANUAL 1172 THE BOOKS OF THE DAY 1172
THE PRINTERS FAVOUR IT 1173 OWN YOUR BOOKS .., 1174 WOMEN AS PUBLISHERS 1174
LONDON BOOKSELLERS' SOCIETY INAUGUR 4 L DINNER 1175 THE LITERARY AND ARTISTIC CONGRESS 1175
SUPPLEMENT TO « CHARLES DICKENS BY PEN AND PENCIL' 1178 BOOKSELLERS' PROVIDENT INSTITUTION 1178
MR . STANLEY ON JOURNALISM 1178 QUITE SO 1178
CANADIAN COPYRIGHT il 78 DRA . MATI 0 WRITING u 78
INCONVESLEST SIZB 3 OF B 00 K 3 .... 1179 TRADE CHANGES ti 79
TN MEMORIAM .. ' .,.. 1179 REVIEWS , < fcc .. 1228
INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 15 & 30 .... 1232 BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM
SEPTEMBER 15 TO 30 .. 1233 ANNOUNCEMENTS 1234 NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED ,. 1237
MISCELLANEOUS 1320 BUS IN ESS CARDS 1331 3 USINESSE 3 FOR SALE 1332
SITUATIONS WANTED 1334 ASSISTANTS WASTED 1334 BOOKS FOR SALE 1335
BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE 1335
St. Dunstan's House, E.C., October 1, 1890.
St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C ., October 1 , 1890 .
T -* * ¦ He Thoug Paradoxical H This Is ...
T - * * ¦ HE thoug paradoxical h this is an are era wont of man to y affirm books , that it is ,
I one of little real reading . Mr . E . Maunde Thompson , in his presidential address to the
Library Association at Reading , has given the paradox wider currency and the stamp of
I authority . The press works with ever-increas-| ing speed , books multiply , new libraries rise ,
I yet the multitude does not read to such effect as when the press was much less active and
the storehouses of thought much less numerous . Such , at least , is the testimony of the
• first Librarian in the kingdom ; and in part oar own pages to-day bear out his statements .
Perhaps never was the book-world so busy as it is now , or its total production for a single
season so enormous . Mr . Thompson ' s words would seem to imply
that the age is much given to mental dissipation . No doubt it is . Magazines and newspapers
furnish many people with all the intellectual pabulum they . desire . They get through piles of
printed matter without ever opening the covers of a book , so that , excellent as is the daily and
periodical * press as a whole , those who read it alone niu . it in the nature of things miss the most
substantial fare . And even in the case of books Mr . Thompson informed his audience
that the taste i » more and more for brevity . Formerly , brevity Was the soul of wit , now it
is the chief merit of literature . Such works as Gibbon's * Decline and Fall / and Carlyle ' s
* Frederick , are reverently laid on the shelf a , nd there allowed , to accumulate duet as
securely as any Egyptian mummy . The impatience of the age will not tolerate expansive
ness and chewing in books of , the There literary is no cud leisurel such y as browsing 1 Charles MpziJIliJ ' - ^^ ii , ^ i t ~— -Tii- rri fn 1 m ~ r ~""^ T" ""
Lamb describes with the gusto of an epicure .
As a people we have lost the art of taking our ease in our inn , or anywhere else ; assuredly
we do not take it in the library or in a corner under the book-shelf . The world presses ,
and reading has to be done in snatches . Amplitude is out of the question . Verbiage
and ornamentation are alike fatal . Every- thing must be condensed . The oracle must '
be laconic , the historian concise , the poet j is forbidden under penalty of neglect to
write and marrow epics . ; i for We live readers / says want Mr . Thompson the pith ,
' in days of small books , in which is con- i densed the information which used to be
conveyed in a much larger form . It is an age of literature in nut-shells ; and that 'A points toI
the fact that we do not live in a reading age , . in the true sense of the word . More people
readbut we live too fast to find time to read , deep , ly . ' All this is trueand we should bt > /
A •/ , the last to doubt the profitableness of deep reading . But there is something to be said I
Thompson for the pri j ustl ple y hails oi condensation it as a happy also sign . that Mr .
the Free Libraries Act is being so largely adopted . Libraries are potent educational
... a lated lated genc JL ies centres centre , and to is \ h p at at lant leaat least them g _ to to in place t > densely lace the tne popu beat w -
means Now the of civilisation increase of w libraries ithin the is peop a direct ——— le ' s reach and .
JL . V \ J TT VAAV AlAV & VVtUV V ^ JL A ^ M « . Mr . AVW * . ** *^ and inevitabl the e low result price of at * the which »» iilVAl multip much lication V *\ J of of the _ books - bes t _
| t literature » UVl H ** . « 3 AWT of the ^ fJL AVVy world ( U is * now A ** published « ""• ~~ . 1 ht ii not to be i !• _ ai that it x the a u „ masses « - » o an Afl ( ao * 0
oug not live to read books forgotten With them it must be
. literature old old prover nroverb in b has has nut-shells it it . tliat that , or half Halt not a a at loaf ioai all , is id and better m - ilia
, than no bread . Moreover , there is » 0 < Ju ^ that will bear condensation better tha ^ thoug ^ . ^
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Citation
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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Oct. 1, 1890, page 1164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01101890/page/4/
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