Mr. G. K. Fortescue, "Keeper of the Printed Books "
in the British Museum, in an address to the Library Association on Tuesday, after giving some valuable details about the Museum catalogue, now complete, started a rather curious inquiry. Do many Englishmen read much ? He evidently thought the habit far less firmly fixed than it is the custom to assume, and one would like to know what the truth is. Our own impression is that, allowing always for a small percentage of men who read voraciously, Mr. Fortescue is in the right, and that an immense majority are content with newspapers ; but the evidence is very imperfect. London publishers complain, and country distributors often declare that their book trade is worthless, while the number of cultivated houses in which there is no bookroom and but few books is very large. The extreme readiness to borrow, too, suggests a readiness to do without, as does the great want of inventiveness in uphol- sterers' shops in the way of bookshelves. On the other hand, the towns welcome public libraries with some hearti- ness, and as soon as they are established a section of the citizens begin to frequent them, while oculists deplore a marked increase in the general habit of reading, and especially of reading too rapidly, a practice which taxes the eyes most severely. One would like to make a house-to-house visitation of a few picked streets in town and country, and ascertain statistically the number of books intended to be read which exist in each, but a Charles Booth of literature is, we fear, hardly to be looked for. Certain it is that men are not ashamed to say, " We do not read much," though they nowadays often add, " We have no time." Fifty years ago they would not have added the excuse.
Previous page
