On Man, Beasts And On Reading

No more we closely resemble the animals than in the matter of eating. Some peck at their food like birds while another takes a lion’s share as a matter of right. We also have seen those who can bolt their food like a snake and leisurely retire to some shaded spot for ease. How its is eaten is not as important as it is absorbed into the system.
Similarly for reading books.
Some approach books like dogs with a bone: they tuck away pages after pages at one reading and leave it aside for later use. Each time it is the marrow they are getting at.
Some do read bovine-like, cover- to-cover at one sitting and then lie down ruminating on the contents.
There are those who like squirrels prodigiously amass books of all kinds and hide away, hoping to return when the time is ripe.
Finally I must mention those readers, who bear-like gorge on books,- at least the first page of every book they have laid their hands on, only to go on their winter sleep.
Tailpiece
How books profit the user is not the same for man or silverfish. The latter, a wingless insect for all the reading serves only to spoil the thrill of reading in the other . Some literary pundits I can think of, who have a penchant for killing the art in the manner they practise their trade.
benny