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Show How Much Do You Read? Indications are that nearly half of- the American people do not read books. This, despite de-spite the fact that more than half of our adults live within a mile of a public library. Presumably, most Americans Ameri-cans are satisfied with what they know, and do not bestir themselves to find out anything any-thing new. It may be, too, that television broadcasts have taken the place of reading read-ing to a large segment of our population. The making of books has become a mass-production en terprise in the United States. Unfortunately, many of the books published are not' worth the time consumed in their read. Others are extremely ex-tremely partisan, presenting prejudiced viewpoints and artful propaganda for theories theor-ies that appeal. to the author. We have heard young men nnd women talk about their difficulty in selecting authoritative author-itative and worth-while oooks on subjects in which they happen to be interested. These people realize that you cannot believe everything that you see in print, and, without the technical information infor-mation necessary to choose wisely among the authors, find themselves at a loss in the selection of intelligent, impartial and interesting volumes. vol-umes. Nothing is to be gained by criticizing the authors of popular volumes or the publishers pub-lishers who put them on sale. After all, the author wants to write a book that will sell, and the publishers want the profits that come from publishing pub-lishing a best seller. Nevertheless, libraries and publishers might render a public service if they created some agency to function in an advisory capacity and to serve the interest of readers, rather than the writers and the publishers. In the long run, everybody would gain. |