Last week, in my Trove Treasures series, I shared some ideas published in the 19th century arguing for reading novels. Now, I am sharing some from the first decades of the 20th century. The articles range from 1903 to 1928, with many, again, coming from London. Diversion and instruction Two papers - Brisbane's The Telegraph … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Trove treasures (9), Pro-novel reading, early 20th century

Édouard Manet, The Reading (1865-1873), Manet's son reading in the background. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Continuing my Trove Treasures series, I am turning this week to some of the discussions I found about the value of novel-reading. Three months ago, I shared some of the arguments made against novel-reading, but in fact, in the … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Trove treasures (8), Pro-novel reading, 19th century

Number 7 in my Trove Treasures series was inspired by a little piece that appeared in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on 6 December 1946. It was titled, "Men join police force after reading novels". Naturally, I was intrigued. What novels, for example? The story's subject was one Constable J. Simons who had just resigned the police … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Trove treasures (7), What police read

My next Trove Treasure is not, strictly speaking, Australian, because it features the English humorist Jerome K. Jerome. But, I found it reported in multiple Australian newspapers, which means that many Australians probably read it, and that makes it at least a bit relevant here. The first one I found was in The Inverell Times … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Trove treasures (6), Why waste time reading novels?

You'll be getting sick of my time-is-short posts, but rest assured that this too shall pass - eventually! Meanwhile, here is another Trove Treasure post. It shares two different responses to reading from churches, in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. What the churches thought Reading novels IN church Courtesy: Clker.com On … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Trove treasures (5), Church and novel reading