Vicarious Vacation Adventures

Abstract

A WOMAN stopped before a librarian's desk and said, suppose I should read books that are instructive but in summer it's nice to read something light and entertaining. She had not discovered wonderland of books. She did not know that information and interest to point of fascination are characteristic of many recent books. The long summer vacation is opportunity for adventures in reading. New worlds have been opened to us in past few years. Through books we can enter and share in these conquests. Some people wisely choose a part of their reading in fields far removed from their work. The stimulating growth is refreshing and makes them better human beings. Some of best guides for book selection are Reading with a Purpose booklets, published by American Library Association. Buy one of these brightly colored little booklets from your local library on whatever subject interests you most, and you will have a short, clear discussion of one of more than forty important subjects in this collection. Each one is written by someone who is authority in his field. Readable and worthwhile are characteristics of every book listed in these friendly guides and number of books in list is always short. An eminent and much-loved bishop after seeing these booklets for first time said, Most booklists .are so long they are simply paralyzing! These are different. The books suggested in this article for vacation reading are selected because they are both entertaining and worthwhile. History, biography, poetry, fiction, philosophy, children's literaturein one of these fields, if you venture, you may find a world. History has been humanized. No longer must a history be heavy and dry in order to be good. A History of A merican Frontier by Paxson is a Pulitzer prize book. All sections of United States except Atlantic seaboard are revealed from background of frontier, the most American thing in all Jefferson and Hamilton by Bowers is a dramatic picture of early struggle for democracy in America. Mark Sullivan's Our Times is a vivid summary of American life in past quarter century. These three books cover American history from 1763 to present. Anyone of them is a stimulating, enjoyable adventure. The same humanizing element has come into biography, naturally enough, for is a member of history family. You see mention now of a new school of biography and an era of biography. If you did not know that such men as Shelley, John Paul Jones, Cortez, List, and Bismark had lived, you could easily think you were reading fiction as you read story of their lives. That truth is stranger than