The Harm of Fiction Reading
Word comes from one of the large publishing houses in New York City that it is publishing “over a million words of fiction a month.” And it might also be safely added that the publishing of this matter does untold harm and but very little good. Go where you will on the railroads, on the street-cars, in waiting-rooms, and such places, and you will see young men and women, and older men and women, busily poring over some volume or magazine article of fiction. If they resorted to such reading only occasionally, it would not be so bad. But when they spend the major part of their spare time in that way, it is perfectly safe to say that they are not among the ones who are “doing things” in the world. One can not spend his time and energies on fiction and still get and hold that grasp of knowledge that fits one to bear his part strongly in the world’s work.