Habit of Reading

   I read a lot of history, a little philosophy, and a good deal of science.My curiosity was too great to allow me to give much time to reflect on what I read; I could hardly wait to finish one book, so eager was I to begin another.This was always an adventure,and I would start upon a famous work as excitedly as a reasonable young man would go in to bat for his side or a nice girl goes to a dance.Now and then journalists in search of copy ask me what the most thrilling moment of my life is. If I were not ashamed to say, I might answer that it is the moment when I began to read Goethe's Faust.

I have never quite lost this feeling,and even now the first pages of a book sometimes send the blood racing through my veins.To me reading is a rest as to other people conversation or a game of cards.It is more than that;it is a necessity,and if I am deprived of it for a little while I find myself as irritable as the addict deprived of his drug.I would sooner read a timetable or a catalogue than nothing at all.

irritable 易怒的, 急躁的