Building Your Library
They say that there is no better way to judge a man’s character than to get inside and take a look at his home. It reveals his tastes, strengths and weaknesses, needs and wants, his idiosyncrasies. If a man had a lot of books that told you something about him. The titles of the books he owned told you more. And no books told you even more.
We cannot keep all our personal friends in our house, they go their way and we go on ours. If we must get together and bond once or twice a month that would be great. But sometimes we don’t keep in touch with them due to work and other responsibilities for longer stretches of time. But not so with our book friends, we can keep large quantities of them in our home. A library would be a welcome addition to any household.
We spend enormous amounts of money to buy concert, sports or any other form of entertainment tickets but we have to realize that these are only passing. For a price of a single ticket can buy you decent books that will give you strength and leisure to your mind all your life.
Those who are well- read, read well. Read one book at a time but never one book alone. Well- written books surely have relatives. Seek them out. Learn something about the family if you want to understand the individual, so to speak.
The basics of any decent library are reference books such as encyclopedia, a good dictionary, world almanac, a volume of thesaurus and quotation books. You can buy hundreds of books all at once but that is what we call a collection of books. A library on the other hand is deliberately made. A library is an organism developing side by side with the mind and character of its owner.
When you buy good books with which to build a library, you are buying a lifetime treasure – a wealth of instruction and continuous delight.
Apartment For Books
By Edgar A. Guest
My bookcase long has seemed to me
A great apartment house to be
Wherein my lifetime friendships dwell
Awaiting me to ring the bell.
Each shelf of floor where friends abide,
Wordsworth and Shelley, side by side,
Bob Burns and Shakespeare, Call, they say,
Whenever you may chance this way.
Some friends are old and some are young;
Some gifted with a witty tongue;
Some strong in faith, in wisdom deep
To aid and comfort all who weep.
As in some building’s inner hall
The names appear upon the wall.
So I varied titles read
To find a friend whose help I need.
We cannot keep all our personal friends in our house, they go their way and we go on ours. If we must get together and bond once or twice a month that would be great. But sometimes we don’t keep in touch with them due to work and other responsibilities for longer stretches of time. But not so with our book friends, we can keep large quantities of them in our home. A library would be a welcome addition to any household.
We spend enormous amounts of money to buy concert, sports or any other form of entertainment tickets but we have to realize that these are only passing. For a price of a single ticket can buy you decent books that will give you strength and leisure to your mind all your life.
Those who are well- read, read well. Read one book at a time but never one book alone. Well- written books surely have relatives. Seek them out. Learn something about the family if you want to understand the individual, so to speak.
The basics of any decent library are reference books such as encyclopedia, a good dictionary, world almanac, a volume of thesaurus and quotation books. You can buy hundreds of books all at once but that is what we call a collection of books. A library on the other hand is deliberately made. A library is an organism developing side by side with the mind and character of its owner.
When you buy good books with which to build a library, you are buying a lifetime treasure – a wealth of instruction and continuous delight.
Apartment For Books
By Edgar A. Guest
My bookcase long has seemed to me
A great apartment house to be
Wherein my lifetime friendships dwell
Awaiting me to ring the bell.
Each shelf of floor where friends abide,
Wordsworth and Shelley, side by side,
Bob Burns and Shakespeare, Call, they say,
Whenever you may chance this way.
Some friends are old and some are young;
Some gifted with a witty tongue;
Some strong in faith, in wisdom deep
To aid and comfort all who weep.
As in some building’s inner hall
The names appear upon the wall.
So I varied titles read
To find a friend whose help I need.
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