The reading part is the chapter eight of the book called “Popular Amusement” by Jonathan

Townley Crane and the title of the part is “Novels and Novel Reading”. The reading passage

begins with the definition of novel and provides examples to deepen the definition and make

it more appealing to the reader. Crane continues by explaining the important points of novel

reading and defines how a novel should be read. He lists the most important factors to be

considered regarding novel reading under four major points and explains these point in great

detail. His writing continues with comparison of novel and fiction writing and he presents his

idea about the fiction books and how they have overtaken the majority of readers with the

false world they create. He concludes by suggesting that the all generations should give the

value to the novels that they deserve. I feel very close to this idea fiction books even today

take the attention of the readers, especially children, by offering them a world that cannot

exist in real life however the novels offer the taste of reality.

This article was very good and important for me because I share the same ideas with the

writer about reading novels. He mentions that if people have limited time to read they should

never spend that time for fiction books and they should read novels because novels can help

you improve yourself and be successful in life. He tells the reader to read biographies, science

books or history books because these books are more useful to the reader. They do not waste

time like fiction books with unreal things. I strongly agree with this opinion because when

people read novels they can learn a lot of things but when they read fiction books they cannot

learn anything. In addition, Crane suggests that if people want to read fiction books they

should only read the best fiction books but he only recommends this if the person has more

free time to read. I can agree with this idea to a certain limit but I believe fiction books cannot

teach us anything and it is important for the people to learn something when they read.

Crane continues with comparing the fiction books with novels by talking about how useless

fiction books are for our lives. His third recommendation about novel reading in his books
was “In all cases let works of fiction form but a very small part of what you read”. He

suggests that even with the best fiction books you should only spare very limited time in your

life. You should not read that fiction book in all your free time. You should still read novels in

your free time but in a very small part of your free time you can read the best fiction books. I

also agree with this opinion because from my perspective if people want they can read fiction

but they should no read it all the time because they cannot learn anything from them. Reading

fiction books can be a fun time for them but I think reading novels about the real life can be

fun too.

The author also suggests that people should stop reading fiction books as soon as they see that

reading these books are not doing any good for their lives. He compares the fiction books with

drugs that intoxicate the brain because fiction book have the same effect. People choose

reading fiction books because they feel it is escaping from the real life but actually it is very

bad for them. People should stop using fiction books to relax and read novels to learn. When I

read this recommendation, I really liked it because it is very close to my ideas about reading

fiction book. People should stop reading fictions because it damage their brain and separates

them from real life. In my opinion fiction books are like big lies that make the world look

beautiful but actually it is not. When I read fiction books I feel my brain is not working and it

is getting numb because of the effect but when I read novels I feel that my brain is working

and I feel happier.

Finally, the book by Jonathan Townley Crane is very useful for the people and it is one of the

most important reference books that show the importance of reading novels. What I like the

best about this book is its ideas are very close to mine about reading novels. Therefore I

recommend it to everyone who likes reading.