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In addition to the keeping-up-to-date reading, there must be reading for permanent knowledge and for emotional adjustment. The former is best derived from the class of nonfiction books. There is something in the hard cover of books, as distinguished from the paper cover of magazines, which justly symbolizes enduring values. To be a worth-while conversationalist, one must read books: histories, biographies, travelogues; books on religion, economics, psychology, and philosophy. I am not a scientist, but even one general book about scientific progress and science personalities, DeKruif s Microbe Hunters, has given me a hundred conversational supports. Nor should one rationalize that because one may not have time to finish a book one had better not start it. Nonfiction reading may well be done in parts and starts. The greatest readers are those who not only choose their books but also of many books choose only such portions as give them most for their time or solve their particular problem. |
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