ISBN: 9781153796811

Excerpt: ...did it for thousands of years before they knew what the laws were, when they merely followed their instincts with them. In a man''s answer to the question, How can I… Mehr…

Excerpt: ...did it for thousands of years before they knew what the laws were, when they merely followed their instincts with them. In a man''s answer to the question, How can I make a convenience of the law of heredity and environment?-education before being born and education after being born-will be found to lie always the secret glory or the secret shame of his life. II The First Selection If the souls of the unborn could go about reconnoitering the earth a little before they settled on it, selecting the parents they would have, the places where it pleased them to be born, nine out of ten of them (judging from the way they conduct themselves in the flesh) would spend nearly all their time in looking for the best house and street to be born in, the best things to be born to. Such a little matter as selecting the right parents would be left, probably, to the last moment, or they would expect it to be thrown in. We are all of us more or less aware, especially as we advance in life, that overlooking the importance of parents is a mistake. There have been times in the lives of some of us when having parents at all seemed a mistake. We can remember hours when we were sure we had the wrong ones. After our first disappointment,-that is, when we have learned how unmanageable parents are,-we have our time-most of us-of making comparisons, of trying other people''s parents on. This cannot be said to work very well, taken as a whole, and it is generally admitted that people who are most serious about it, who take unto themselves fathers- and mothers-in-law seldom do any better than at first. The conclusion of the whole matter would seem to be: Since a man cannot select his parents and his parents cannot select him, he must select himself. That is what books are for. III Conveniences It is the first importance of a true book that a man can select his neighbours with it,-can overcome space, riches, poverty, and time with it,-and the grave, and break... Gerald Stanley Lee, Books, History, The Lost Art Of Reading Books>History The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Books and reading; History / General; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Semiotics<

ISBN: 1153796813

The Lost Art of Reading Author :Gerald Stanley Lee 9781153796811 1153796813, [PU: General Books, LLC]

ISBN: 9781153796811

The Lost Art of Reading Paperback New Books, General Books