On Christmas Eve, while the Perfect Reader sits in his armchair immersed in a book-so absorbed that he has let the fire go out-I propose to slip gently down the chimney and leave this tribute in his stocking. It is not a personal tribute. I speak, on behalf of the whole fraternity of writers, this word of gratitude-and envy. No one who has ever done any writing, or has any ambition toward doing so, can ever be a Perfect Reader. Such a one is not disinterested. He reads, inevitably, in a professional spirit. He does not ...
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On Christmas Eve, while the Perfect Reader sits in his armchair immersed in a book-so absorbed that he has let the fire go out-I propose to slip gently down the chimney and leave this tribute in his stocking. It is not a personal tribute. I speak, on behalf of the whole fraternity of writers, this word of gratitude-and envy. No one who has ever done any writing, or has any ambition toward doing so, can ever be a Perfect Reader. Such a one is not disinterested. He reads, inevitably, in a professional spirit. He does not surrender himself with complete willingness of enjoyment. He reads "to see how the other fellow does it"; to note the turn of a phrase, the cadence of a paragraph; carrying on a constant subconscious comparison with his own work. He broods constantly as to whether he himself, in some happy conjuncture of quick mind and environing silence and the sudden perfect impulse, might have written something like that. He is (poor devil) confessedly selfish. On every page he is aware of his own mind running with him, tingling him with needle-pricks of conscience for the golden chapters he has never written. And so his reading is, in a way, the perfection of exquisite misery-and his writing also. When he writes, he yearns to be reading; when he reads, he yearns to be writing.
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Add this copy of Plum Pudding: of Divers Ingredients Discreetly Blended to cart. $48.29, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by BiblioBazaar.
Add this copy of Plum Pudding: of Divers Ingredients Discreetly Blended to cart. $50.96, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by BiblioBazaar.
Add this copy of Plum Pudding to cart. $19.47, poor condition, Sold by Anybook rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lincoln, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1921 by Doubleday, Doran and Company Ltd.
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Seller's Description:
This book has hardback covers. Ex-library, With usual stamps and markings, In poor condition, suitable as a reading copy. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 550grams, ISBN:
Add this copy of Plum Pudding to cart. $28.00, fair condition, Sold by Pepper's Old Books rated 2.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hanson, KY, UNITED STATES, published 1921 by Doubleday, Page & Co.
Add this copy of Plum Pudding to cart. $30.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1921 by Doubleday, Page & Co.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Very Good jacket. First edition, first issue. Illustrated by Walter Jack Duncan. Octavo. 242pp. Near fine with spine gilt a bit dulled and some foxing to the pastedowns in very good dust jacket with shallow chip at the crown of the spine and with moderate soiling and wear. Lee 20.
