To those who have leisure, the practice of occasionally writing a short synopsis of a book they have read is to be very strongly recommended. This helps to fix the contents on the memory; and if there is anything difficult to understand, the reader will see whether she has clearly grasped it or not when she comes to explain it to herself in black and white.
It is also of the very greatest importance in reading not to pass by words and allusions without understanding them. There are many correspondents of The Girl’s Own Paper, who, for example, in reading Tennyson, cannot rest without knowing who is meant by—
“A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,
And most divinely fair,”
or by—
“Him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones.”
(And we are always glad to see questions of that nature sent to the correspondence column, because it shows a literary interest is alive.) This sort of allusion is a difficult one to understand without a liberal education; but of course there are many others which can be explained by consulting books of reference, classical or biographical dictionaries, or by asking questions. It is a great blessing not to be too proud to confess ignorance. No one despises the inquirer; but shallow pretence is very apt to be found out.
A book of travels, for instance, should never be read without the map of the country near at hand for reference; or such a work as a translation of the “Odyssey” without a classical dictionary. In short, reading should be intelligent, not merely formal.
People differ very much as to the speed at which they can read. Some will grasp the whole meaning of a page at a glance; others toil through it sentence by sentence. No rule can be laid down. Only it may be said that the modern habit among well-to-do young people with plenty of books, of skimming through a volume in an hour or two and never looking at it again, is not to be commended. How often one is met by the reply, on offering a book to occupy vacant hours, “Oh, I’ve read that!” And, however delightful or charming the book may be, the very fact of having read it is an effectual deterrent from opening its pages any more.