The Gentle Reader

Books become companions in Samuel McChord Crothers's essays on the pleasures and habits of reading. The opening imagines an easy conversation between writer and reader, with time for digressions, personal opinions and even comfortable dullness. Don Quixote and Fielding help him explore the difference between seeking information and enjoying an author's company. The collection's subjects include poetry, humor, readable history, science and the reader's relations with the clergy.

Memory gives the discussion another direction when a mountain pointed out from an Italian train recalls old school lessons and a much loved teacher. Crothers uses the incident to consider the value of learning that survives as an impression after its details have faded. His personal, playful approach makes literary appreciation a matter of affection and experience as well as judgment. Readers interested in why books remain part of everyday life will find essays that give wandering thoughts room to develop.