E
You have to read “between the lines” to get the most out of anything. I mean you need to “write between the lines.” Marking up a book is an act of love. You shouldn’t mark up a book which isn’t yours. Librarians or your friends who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am right about the usefulness of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the world’s great books are available today, in reprint editions, at less than a dollar.
There are two ways one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the first step to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An example may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and get it from the butcher’s ice-box to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you eat it and get it into your blood. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood to do you any good.
Confusion about what it means to own a book leads people to a false respect for paper, cover, and type — a respect for the physical thing — the art of the printer rather than the wisdom of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to get the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without signing his name on the cover. Having a fine library doesn’t prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.
47. In the beginning, the author advises readers to _______.
A. borrow a book B. purchase a book
C. keep clean a book D. write in a book
48. According to the author, real ownership of a book comes to you when you have_______.
A. paid for it B. signed your name on it
C. really learned from it D. borrowed it from a friend
49. Marking up a book is a sign that _______.
A. you understand it and have it do good to you
B. you have its ownership and the right to mark it
C. you don’t have the habit to keep it clean
D. you aren’t aware of the writer’s wisdom
50. What does the author discuss in the last paragraph?
A. The process of printing a book.
B. The meaning of owning a book.
C. The wisdom of writing a book.
D. The value of buying a book.
