1078 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



Reasons why the reading habit is lost. — A common testimony of house- 

 keepers is that the demands of the home are so great that even if they 

 find a Httle time they are too tired to read or to study. Reading has been 

 pursued in a perfunctory way, perhaps, and has ceased to be a recreation, 

 or the habit has become lost in the too close attention to the practical. 

 Perhaps in the effort to provide the home with the comforts of life, books 

 have become a luxury. Or it may be that the books composing the 

 library are only those once enjoyed and not in line with present tastes 

 and demands; they may be volumes that the urgency of the subscription 



Fig. 32. — A boy's corner 



agent has induced the homekeeper to buy, only to be locked behind 

 glass doors : books of information, but not of inspiration. 



On the shelves there are books that we often resolve to read, but we await 

 an opportunity when we may be able to read for an hour or two at a time. 

 Hence the book remains perhaps for years, and it is always a pleasure or 

 a task ahead of us, rather than one accomplished or a present enjo>Tnent. 

 We should first choose our book, read a chapter or a few pages, and leave 

 it at a point where there is interest enough to make the desire to know 

 what is coming next irresistible. It is a pleasure to place a book on the 

 shelf with the feeling that it is a part of our own life and experience, a 

 new and treasured friend. 



