“Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; some few to be chewed and digested” Discuss this statement.
Thanks to the German genius of Gutenberg, printing became possible and the Englishman Caxton improved on it with the result that printing of books had become possible and today train loads, nay shiploads of books are being printed. The litho press, the halftone, the electropying, and the mechanization of printing books have made it possible to print millions of books at a cheap rate. So every year hundreds of new books are being sold in the market and they cover almost every subject under the sun.
This is not to say that all the books that are printed and put into the market are worthy of note. There are books and books and to categorize them is really a librarian’s job. It is highly doubtful whether the highest executive in a big public library knows all about the books he handles. He knows them only through the catalogue. So to categorize the books according to the subjects may be difficult. But in each department, there are three categories of books of which Bacon speaks; books to be tasted, books to be swallowed and books to be chewed and digested.
There are certain types of books which can only be tasted. To have a taste is just to have some sensation out of reading it and it stops there. One does not pursue it nor cling to it. The taste may be good or bad. When it is good there is a further attraction and where it is bad there is only repulsion. Suppose one had never tasted a cup of good tea but once he gets it he may have further urge to have more cups of such a fine tea. But to him tea is not the thing; only its taste just attracts him. He can carry on definitely without tea. To this category belong the novels, dramas, short stories, newspaper articles, and so on. One reads a novel but not to sear by it. Nowadays youngsters read a lot of Perry Mason or Agatha Christie. But there the taste may stop. It is doubtful whether many of them can even remember the story after some time, so too with the other items mentioned. This, of course, refers to the general reader and not to the specialist who may study them deeply or in the words of Bacon ‘Chewed and Digested’ to submit a research paper. In short, one who has tasted them simply knows them and nothing beyond.
Coming to the second kind some books are to be swallowed. One swallows a medicine capsule not because he likes it but because it is necessary that he should take it as per his doctor’s advice. Very often he may not even know its contents. To this category belong the blue books, treatises or dissertations, law books, and various types of handbooks. Not that they are not useful. Only one does not seek them to bring comfort or seek companionship in them. It is not for pleasure one reads them. Such books are like multiplication tables to a child. Many that can be included in this category even Bacon could not have thought of. These are the short professional books that litter the tables of different experts.
Then comes the third category of books of which Bacon speaks that they must be chewed and digested. At least a modem schoolboy knows what chewing gum is. To chew calls for the work of the teeth. There is no hurry, every bit is chewed. Say one chews a tasty lozenge. It must be chewed to be enjoyed. One feels through the stuff, enjoys the flavor, and with half-closed eyes can go on chewing because it is so tasty. The chewing gum stops with the mouth for it is nothing to be digested. But in the case of good food, not only should it be chewed; it must also be digested only to be assimilated into the body.
So too there are books which must be chewed and digested. To this category belong the great classics, the great religious books, dramas of Shakespeare, and great poetry. They never grow stale through the lapse of time nor are they dimmed because of age. There are the great epics of the East that have sustained the culture. Time can’t defy the virility of the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, and so on. Nor can humanity ever afford to forget Socrates or Homer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tolstoy, and a galaxy of many others. Wherever they are one is always in distinguished company. They can be read and re-read and they have influenced the life and thoughts of generations of people. As somebody had cryptly said, ‘Read Shakespeare for the seventh time, you will find a new meaning’. Such books are not confined to geographical borders for they are universal and a wise man would have chewed and digested them.
But there is a place for all these categories of books and this is n a library so that they may serve the needs of different kinds of readers. Even a serious reader may look for a book just to be tasted while traveling. So a discriminating reader can choose the books according to his needs.
