Page:The small library. A guide to the collection and care of books (IA smalllibraryguid00browiala).pdf/40

 uncut, or scribbled over with sarcastic annotations. On the whole, there are too many practical disadvantages about the concentration plan to make it generally acceptable. On the other hand, a bedroom is not a suitable place for books, unless in the case of people living in lodgings. In the first place, wise to encourage the habit of reading in bed, or of reading when one ought to be sleeping? Again, in cases of illness, particularly when infectious, the is it stripping of the room, disinfection, and other disturbing processes, make bedrooms unsuitable places for the permanent storage of books. But on this point, every householder must be a law unto him or herself, as also on other points, such as the desirability of placing books in the scullery or coal-cellar.

A somewhat extensive and careful inquiry shows that the general reference library of the average British householder is not only incomplete, but in most cases non-existent. In dozens of cases, he does not possess a single reference book of any kind, and in a majority of cases which have come under notice, the household reference library consists of a solitary school dictionary of the English language. In a few cases houses are also found boasting of a cookery-book, issued free by an enterprising firm of sauce manufacturers, in which, by an extraordinary coincidence, the one thing needful to the success of a dish, is a dash of one or other of the firm's productions. There are also houses which preserve as literature the almanacks containing recipes and testimonials, issued by various vendors