We enjoy reading books that belong to us much more than if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with enough careful attention. You must see that it keeps no dirty or destroyed pages.
But books are for use, not for show, you should own no book that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the important sayings, to refer to them quickly, and then in later years, it is like visiting a forest where you once walked in.
Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; this habit can here be developed with every advantage. The best wallpaper is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and if you sit alone in the room in the firelight, you are surrounded (包围) with close friends. The knowledge that they are there in common thought is both encouraging and refreshing. Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. They are part of history; the best part of personality.
Book-friends have this advantage over living friends; you can enjoy the most truly great society in the world whenever you want it. The great dead are beyond our physical (身体的) reach, and the great living are usually almost as too far to reach. But in a private library, you can at any moment talk with Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They “laid themselves out” they did their best to entertain (娱乐) you, to make a favorable impression. You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their inside heart of heart.
【小题1】The underlined word punctiliousness refers to _________.| A．expectation | B．admiration | C．great care | D．nice view |
| A．walking into an old forest | B．treating a guest in the house |
| C．showing out a private library | D．talking to great dead and living |
| A．colors | B．books | C．library | D．friends |
| A．easy | B．nice | C．hard | D．common |
