Oxford
styles of annotation are well founded, this is questionable. The worst
way, I should think, would be to review it for a newspaper.'[15]

'Reading, and much reading, is good. But the power of diversifying the
matter infinitely in your own mind, and of applying it to every occasion
that arises is far better.'[16]

'A person once told me that he never took up a book except with the view
of making himself master of some subject which he was studying, and that
while he was so engaged he made all his reading converge to that point.
In this way he might read parts of many books, but not a single one from
"end to end." This I take to be an excellent method of study, but one
which implies the command of many books.'[17]

'Never read a book without pencil in hand. If you dislike disfiguring
the margins and fly-leaves of your own books, borrow a friend's; but by
all means use a pencil, if only to jot down the pages to be re-read. To
transcribe striking, beautiful, or important passages is a tremendous
aid to the memory; these will live for years, clear and vivid as day,
when the book itself has become spectral and shadowy in the night of
oblivion. A manuscript volume of such passages, well indexed, will
become in time one of the most valuable books in one's library.'[18]

'No man, it appears to me, can tell another what he ought to read. A
man's reading, to be of any value, must depend upon his power of
association, and that again depends upon his tendencies, his capacities,
his surroundings, and his opportunities.'[19]

* * * * *

I am fully convinced that the above passages condense all that is best
worth knowing upon the 'Art of Reading.'

Next in importance is what to read. Be very careful about reading books
which are recommended, because they are books of the hour. Fools step in
and say read this and that without thinking to put themselves in your
place. Because a book suits one person, it is only a rare chance that it
will suit a friend equally.

Before recommending a book to another with assurance, you must know the
book well, and the friend to whom it is recommended you must know much
better. Read the book which suggests something responsive and
sympathetic. No one can tell you this as well as you can find it for
yourself. Practice will teach you to choose a book, as practice has
taught you to choose a friend. You will almost be able to choose it in
the dark. There are affin