lets consider the books he actually does read ;-)

Here is a link to a post from the last Group Read about The Extracts and their author.

I've been able to scan in better pictures of the title pages of the Elegant Extracts of Poetry( buying a better scanner in the intervening three years helps!).

This is Volume I

and this is Volume II

We are also told that he reads the Vicar of Wakefield- not a sensational,Gothic-y Mrs Radclliffe novel, but a novel of some literary worth by Oliver Goldsmith.

And finally we are told he reads the Agricultural reports. This may have been the reports produced by the Board of Agriculture as to the state of farming in England .

The Board of Agriculture from 1793 produced repots which disseminated new ideas for farming improvements to the English farming community. The reports did not attract a wide readership,but the information for professional modernising farmers was available. So- instead of whiling away his evenings drinking or staring into a fire, Mr Martin take the time to amuse his family by reading from highly respectable and commendable books, or on improving his own condition as a farmer by reading up on modern farming practise( conitnued education at its best,IMHO).