--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Widtsoe, Osborne J. P. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 20 number: 10 published: 1917-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Osborne J. P. Widtsoe, "How to Read," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 10 (August 1917): 886–891.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera20010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera20010unse start_page: 886 end_page: 891 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera20010unse publication_year: 1917 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # How to Read How to Read" By Osborne J. P. Widtsoe, A. M. During the ten or fifteen minutes allotted to me, I sincerely hope that I may have the Spirit of the Lord to inspire me; and I hope, further, that the few suggestions I shall have to make, may be in accordance with the desire of the Spirit of the Lord. In view of the report that Brother Kirkham has just made, that in the reading activity of the Mutual Improvement Associ- ations we have grown from about seven hundred reading mem- bers to over 6ixty-four thousand reading members, it would seem that a statement I have heard not infrequently of late is not true. Several times within the last two or three weeks it has been said in my hearing that our people are not a reading people, that we need a great deal of encouragement along this particular line. It does seem to me that of all the people under the sun, we ought to be a reading people; that we ought to be- come acquainted with good books; that we ought to grow in intelligence and understanding. It may be that there are many reasons why we do not read more widely than we do. We have a great many meetings to attend; we have a great many duties to perform ; we have a great work to accomplish from day to day. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Lord himself has declared that intelligence is the glory of God, that we cannot be saved in ignorance, that we are to seek wisdom from the best books, and that we are to read all good books. It appears to me, therefore, that it is one of the obligations the Lord has put upon his peo- ple, that we shall read, that we shall be a reading people, that we shall become acquainted with good things from good books. Then we come face to face with the question which has been given me to discuss today — How shall we read? As I face this question, I am met at once with another one, and that is, Why is a book? It is somewhat like a conundrum, but unless I know why a book exists, I may not know how to read. I can easily imagine that the primitive folk of whom we are told sometimes, who first drew crude pictures upon stones, did so for some specific reason. I believe that the men who first invented the alphabet, who first expressed throughts in writing, in picture writing or any other form of writing, did so *Address delivered at joint M. I. A. officers' meeting, Annual Confer- ence, June 8, 1917. HOW TO READ 887 because they were impelled by a desire to express something to others, to convey something to others. That something which they wished to convey is a message. As people then learned how to write and as society grew in its complexity of organiza- tion, there came to be men who found it possible to make writ- ing their special occupation. Today, writing has been commer- cialized, and not all the books that come upon the market, by any means, are worth reading; but this much is true, I believe, that just as well today as at any other time in the history of the world, as at the beginning when man first endeavored to convey his thoughts to his fellow-men, the books that are worth while have messages. How, then, shall I read? The first thing to do is to read in such a way as to get the message. If the book has not a message, it is not worth reading, it is not worth the paper that it is printed upon. There are some who will preach to you the doctrine of art for art's sake, literature for literature's sake, and something else for some- thing else's sake. As a matter of fact, things do not exist for themselves. They exist for us, for you and me; and books do not exist for themselves, then, but they exist for us, that we may get something out of them. If a book is written merely as a matter of exercise, to see how beautifully it can be constructed, how beautifully the thoughts in it can be expressed, but if there is no effort to make the thoughts of real benefit to those who shall afterward read the book, the book is not worth your time. The Reading Committee of the General Boards have, therefore, a great responsibility placed upon them when they proceed to se- lect books for the Mutual Improvement Association to read. Readers are generally classified into three groups. I do not like the names given to these three groups very well, yet I will give them to you anyway — the simple reader, the intellectual reader, and the gentle reader. The simple reader is one who, like the fisherman with his net, goes out to the lake and takes in everything that happens to get into his net. He reads all kinds of books, good, bad, and indifferent; he makes no selection; he does not endeavor to get anything in particular out of reading; he merely reads. The intellectual reader, on the other hand, is the man who reads merely for fact. He wants everything that is stated in the books to be absolutely true, to be correct and precise in every detail. He cares little for the inspiration that he may get out of the book; he cares little for the moral tone of the book; he cares little for anything except the exactness of the statements of the book. The so-called gentle reader, however, combines the best qualities of all of these, if the first one has any qualities at all. The gentle reader reads for enlargement of mind; he reads for 888 IMPROVEMENT ERA enlargement of soul; he reads to learn, to know things; he reads for sympathy, for appreciation of his fellow-men, for the better- ing of his ways, the cultivating of higher and finer ideals, for the making of himself a bigger and better man. He requires that the thought, the message of the book, shall be good; he re- quires that the statements shall be correct; he requires that the moral tone shall be high and pure. It seems to me, then, that starting to read, we want to find out — we want to read for the purpose of discovering — the pur- pose of the author in writing- We want to find the message of the book. Then we want to be gentle readers of discrimination. We want to get those books that shall best inspire us to be- come greater and nobler and of more service in the world. There are three tests that you may apply to the books the reading course has given you, and to all books that come under your observation. These three tests concern, first, the matter of the book; secondly, the form of the book, and, thirdly, the spirit of the book. You should ask yourselves this question, — in reading a book, and trying to discover its message, — Is the matter contained in the book essentially true, well chosen, and worth while? It is not enough that you find that the matter in a book is true, but it must also be timely, it must be appropri- ate, it must be well chosen and above all, it must be worth your while. Why waste time reading a book, no matter how true the matter contained may be, no matter how pertinent it may be to our own times or to our own lives, if it is not worth while in its application to our own lives? Next, is it pleasing in form? You and I must grow in appreciation, our tastes must be culti- vated, we must learn to appreciate the bigger and the better and the finer things. We must observe the commandments of the Lord in becoming nearer like him. We must, then, culti- vate our tastes by looking for these better things. Someone has said that art is nothing more nor less than the presentation of life in terms of truth and beauty. We are reading, then, to gain something of value to us in life. All literature should be a portrait or a presentation of life, but it should be a presenta- tion of life in terms of truth and beauty. Is the form pleas- ing? Is the form or manner of the expression, the construction and all, in conformity with the higher principles of this defini- tion of art, the presentation of life in terms of truth and beauty? Finally, and this is of great importance to all men and particu- larly, I think, to Mutual Improvement workers, is the spirit of the book sincere, of good moral tone, attractive and touched with a fine, sensitive, delicate feeling. A book that does not ring true, a book that does not breathe the spirit of a better, cleaner, moral life, is again not worth your time. Few books are worth reading that will not stand the test of this analysis. HOW TO READ 889 The reason I do not say that not any book that does not stand this test is worth reading, is that there are occasionally men who write with a splendid message, who have something to give to us, but who have not learned anything about the art of ex- pression; and consequently some few books may fail to measure up to the higher standards of some of the requirements of lit- erature, but at least two of these tests every book worth while must stand. Now, in reading, if the book presented to you has a preface, read the preface first. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the preface was the last thing written. The man wrote his book, and when he got through, he wrote his preface; but in the preface, he tells you why he has written the book, what he hopes to accomplish through the book, what the mission of the book in the world is. And you are reading for the purpose of discovering the message of the book, of discovering whether or not the book has a message, and whether or not that mes- sage is worth while. I believe that the Reading Course Committee has been careful in making its selection of books for you; but still, since this is for encouragement and for the development of reading amongst the people of the Church, it may be well to give two or three points that will stimulate reading outside of the read- ing course. In selecting your own books, as we hope you will, we trust you will read more than merely what is on the reading list, — in selecting your own books, select books about people and things. Read very few books about books. Learn to think for yourselves and to form your own commentaries on Shake- speare, on Browning, or on Jack London, or on somebody else. Read books about men and things, about the activities of life, the history of the world, the fiction that involves the Kving here upon the earth. Read occasionally a book about books, in order to test your own ability to judge a book. There are several books on the reading course. There are many others that you will read of your own choice. Read one book at a time, but never one book only. Very few men in this world have made a success through one book alone. There are, however, a few exceptions. There are possibly half a dozen men in the field of English literature who were acquainted with only half a dozen books, but the great majority of men have been wide readers, they have read many books of many kinds and have got a great deal of inspiration from all of the books; but most of them have been careful to read one book at a time. Then remember this, further, and we hope you will follow this so far as the reading course is concerned, that, as someone has said, well-born books have relatives. If you find a good book, that same author has perhaps written another good book, or 890 IMPROVEMENT ERA the same subject may be treated in other books. So* follow up your reading, go from one book to another, from that book to a third, from that to a fourth, until you satisfy yourself on this susbject which you are investigating or in which you are read- ing, for the purpose of enlarging your mind. All well-born books have relatives; and their relatives are as good in most cases as the book that you happened to read first. Very often you will find that some of the relatives to which you are led are better than the books that you read first. Some people will be disappointed in that they do not find the latest best seller on the Mutual Improvement reading course. Personally, I don't know but that I should say, "I thank the Lord it is not there," were it not for the fact that the present best seller, the present leader, happens to be a pretty good book; but in general, it is wise to read the books that have es- tablished themselves; become well acquainted with them. Read the old books. Not exclusively. I do not advocate living in the catacombs; I do not believe in associating with mummies, with things that are of the dead past. But literature is the brain of history, and all the impressions that have been made upon the brain are recorded in the literature, therefore, of a nation. If you wish to know a nation intimately, if you wish to know a people intimately, you must know the literature of that people. So, become acquainted with the best of the old books; mix with your reading of today, the reading that was the reading of yes- terday, and in that way you will find, too, that you are applying a test to your own taste, and you are finding a new test whereby to judge of the new books, to determine whether or not they are worth while. Read with the view and purpose of finding the message, of discovering the meritorious qualities in a book. Read, if you will, with pencil in hand, stopping at the end of chapters to think; go over the matter that you were reading; read slowly; read thoughtfully. Do not see how many pages you can read in an hour, but see how much good you can get out of your reading in an hour. Read, then, I repeat again, to discover the author's message; find that above all things; and though I may perhaps get myself into trouble by saying this, I will venture it, that if you find a book on the reading course which does not have a message, which is not worth while from these tests, report it to the chairman of the reading course committee, and let him correct the evil. Brother Kirkham reported that you had a reading course in 1906. Do not forget that the books that were good in 1906 are still good. Read over the best books that you have read- and the very best books that you have read, read over again- make them your familiar friends, turn to them frequently and HOW TO READ 89i get inspiration upon inspiration from those books. You know perhaps from your experience in going to theatres, that the second time you see a good play, you get a great deal more out of it than you did the first time you saw it; if you go a third time, you see still more good things, new things, in it, and you get a bigger inspiration from it; you go the fourth time and you think, "Well, this is going to be tedious; I can't see anything more in this play," but you find that the fourth time is still more interesting than it was the third. Good books never become tiresome. If you turn baek to some of your old reading and find you cannot read it any more, you will find two causes perhaps for your lack of interest, and the two causes are so related that they become practically only one. One is, you yourself have advanced and progressed and formed a higher ideal and a truer taste. The other is that the book itself may not have been so much worth while as you really thought when you were reading the book for the first time. Finally, and this is my last word on the subject, I believe that in reading, we should follow the admonition given to Dr. Maeser, when he was sent to begin the Church School system: "Teach nothing, not even the multiplication table, without the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord." Books that are worth while should be read prayerfully as well as thoughtfully and slowly, for it is in this exercise of faith, in devotion, in remem- bering that we are the children of the Lord and that we are here for the special purpose of fulfiling a mission divinely im- posed upon us, that we shall succeed. The Lord said, as I have already quoted, "Seek ye out of the best books, words of wis- dom," but he went on to say further, "Seek learning even by study and also by faith." It is the faith that we exercise, it is the gift of the Holy Ghost which rests upon us, it is the power of the priesthood which is ours, that is going to make us better students, better scholars, better able to serve the world in the end, if we are to do any better than other people who have not these blessings. May God help us to become a people of readers, of wise and discriminating readers, readers in faith and in the spirit of the Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. (For a list of Reading Course books, for 1917-18, see page 838, July number of the Era.)