IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY THOMAS H. BRIGGS, A.B. OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, THE EASTERN ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AND LOTUS D. COFFMAN, A.B. SUPERVISOR OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL, REVISED AND ENLARGED CHICAGO ROW PETERSON & CO. PART I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I THE IMPORTANCE AND KINDS OF READING It is unnecessary today to argue the advantages of reading. From being the possession of the few, regarded by the people as a form of black art, reading has come to be the heritage of the many. The man who can not read to some extent is now as rare as five hundred years ago he that could. By reading we satisfy our instant craving for current news, we read for the pleasure that literature affords, and we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors in all realms of knowledge. A librarian has said, "Take away our reading, and the observation possible to one man, with the thought it will awaken, may result in shrewdness, even profundity, but they can never give him breadth.''* The Choice of Books As Tithonus was given one great gift without the wisdom to use it, in like manner many today have *Koopman: The Mastery of Books. |