Review of Keiieici. Ijllloe. 



The Book of the Month. 



613 



Then, after the Mission was held, the following 

 Monday night a meeting of all those whose interest 

 had been excited hv the series should be held for the 

 purpose of making a personal canvass at once 

 through the whole town in order to ascertain how far 

 the inhabitants could be induced to become pur- 

 chasers of the books in which their interest had been 

 excited bv the pictures. Such a canvass would not 

 be difficult if the town was of manageable dimen- 

 sions, and the number of persons interested was suf- 

 ficientlv large to take from twenty to thirty houses 

 each. Small printed circulars setting forth the ad- 

 vantages of reading, the cheapness with which books 

 could be procured, the range of choice, etc., could 

 be left at every door in the town. 



Such a work would arouse the whole community. 

 In places where they had a Free Library it would 

 probably result in an increased attention being paid 

 to making it adequate to the needs of the town ; in 

 places where there was no Free Library the com- 

 m.ittee might naturally set on foot an agitation for 

 the adoption of the Free Libraries Act. If after a 

 canvass it was found that any particular district 

 could not be induced to buy books, the question 

 would come as to whether the principle of tract dis- 

 tribution might not be adopted with advantage. 



After the house-to-house agitation for a Free Lib- 

 rary and the organisation of a Literary Tract Distri- 

 bution Societv, it would be natural for the com- 

 mittee to set before themselves the definite aim of 

 rousing every householder in the town to a sense of 

 the duty of providing a library for his own home. 

 HOW TO FORM SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 



If there is to be any real, deep, wide, national 

 revival of the love of reading we must begin with the 

 children. In this matter we have a great deal to 

 learn from the Americans. The extent to which the 

 public authorities take thought for the children in 

 the United States would put most of our British 

 authorities to shame. Here and there in the United 

 Kingdom the Free Libraries Committee seem to 

 realise that everv public elementary school ought to 

 be regarded as a branch of the Central Library, and 

 treated accordingly. But these cases are exceptional. 

 What \ye have to do is to level up our practice both 

 in schools and in villages to the highest American 

 standard. 



But it will not do to wait until the public authori- 

 ties wake up. The Reading Revivalists ought to be- 

 gin operations at once, each in his own district, ap- 

 pealing each to the teachers of the schools whom 

 they can reach. The ideal — a Library in every 

 Home— should have as its complement a Library 

 in every School. 



A LADS' AND LASSES' LIBRARY. 

 .After reading over the essays of those who have 

 told how they fust came to love hooks, it almost 

 seems as if the author of the " Psychology of Con- 

 version " had some ground for his assertion that a 

 radical change .seldom takes places after adolescence. 



If a \outh has not learned to love his books before 

 he is out of his teens — the age might be put much 

 lower — there is but the most meagre chance that he 

 will take to reading in after life. But to help lads 

 and la.sses to bridge over the critical age it ought 

 to be possible to provide something better than 

 " bloods." 



If I propose to see if I can create a Lads' and 

 Lasses' Library for the readers of my Books for 

 the Bairns who are growing up, it is not because 1 

 am inclined to dwell with exaggerated horror upon 

 the defects of the reading matter which they con- 

 sume by the ton every week. The sentimental novel- 

 ette, the blood-and-thunder penny dreadful are bet- 

 ter than nothing. But there must be many thousands 

 of parents and teachers who deplore the practical 

 monopoly of the field of young people's literature by 

 the pirate, the brigand, and the burglar. A few 

 more or less fainthearted efforts have been made by 

 excellent societies to issue penny stories that would 

 not depend so much for their attractiveness upon 

 blood and murder. But the Lads' and Lasses' 

 Library has still to be created, and I confidently ap- 

 peal to the parents and to the teacher for their co- 

 operation and support in this new enterprise. 



A LIBRARY IN EVERY HOME. 



If bnok-reading is to be restored to its proper 

 place books must struggle for existence by the use 

 of the same weapons as those which have secured 

 the ascendency of the newspaper and the magazine. 

 We must have books issued with the same regular 

 periodicity, in the same manageable compass, at as 

 low prices, and with the necessary editorial selection 

 and compression. 



If the watchword of the Reading Revival is to be 

 a Library in Every Home, it is in the first place 

 necessary to show that a Library can be supplied 

 on terms which will render it possible to place it in 

 every home. 



I think it can be done. Nay. if I meet with 

 adequate support and encouragement from those who 

 are interested in the education of the people, I am 

 prepared to produce that Library, and produce it on 

 terms which will not only be within the means of 

 every working man and working woman in the land, 

 but which would create a fimd available for pur- 

 poses of education of at least ;^2o,ooo for every 

 100,000 sets of the Library subscribed for. 



I think it ought to be done, and I appeal to you, 

 mv readers,. to help me do it. 



The Library for the Million would contain 120 

 books, four of which would be issued monthly until 

 the bookshelf was filled. 



The whole Library would cost thirty shillings 

 complete, each volume being sold separately at three- 

 pence. 



These books for the million would consist of two 

 classes, which Ruskin described as Rooks of the 

 Day and Books of All Time; the Classics of the 

 World's Literature and the books of infcrmation 



