海角大神

As Labor Day arrives, signaling the end of another summer reading season, you might be wondering why you didn鈥檛 read as many books at the beach as you thought you would.

But that problem isn鈥檛 a new one, as evidenced by some remarks on travel and reading that Aldous Huxley offered back in 1925.

Huxley, who died in 1963, was best known as the novelist behind the celebrated science fiction story 鈥淏rave New World.鈥澛� But Huxley was also a travel writer, and in 鈥淎long the Road: Notes and Essays of A Tourist,鈥� he offers this reflection:

鈥淎ll tourists cherish an illusion, of which no amount of experience can ever completely cure them; they imagine that they will find time, in the course of their travels, to do a lot of reading. They see themselves, at the end of a day鈥檚 sightseeing or motoring, or while they are sitting in the train, studiously turning over the pages of all the vast and serious works which, at ordinary seasons, they never find time to read. They start for a fortnight鈥檚 tour in France, taking with them 鈥楾he Critique of Pure Reason,鈥� 鈥楢ppearance and Reality,鈥� the complete works of Dante and the 鈥楪olden Bough.鈥� They come home to make the discovery that they have read something less than half a chapter of the 鈥楪olden Bough鈥� and the first fifty-two lines of the 鈥業nferno.鈥欌��

Huxley conceded that although he was still far too optimistic in judging how much he鈥檇 read on a trip, he鈥檇 become more聽prudent, not carrying quite as many volumes along. But he welcomed the innovation of India paper, which allowed very thin pages, meaning that long texts could be carried in lighter formats. 鈥淎ll Shakespeare... gets into a volume no bigger than a novel,鈥� Huxley noted with satisfaction.

Which leaves us wondering what Huxley, an early champion of compact books, would have thought of the e-reader.

Danny Heitman, a columnist with The Baton Rouge Advocate, is the author of 鈥淎 Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.鈥�