"FOR THE happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance," says the writer Mignon McLaughlin from the calendar "Fabulous Broads."

IN SPITE of sounding like Oprah, saying, "Read this book!" I do want to urge you to read two tomes that I am recommending. One of them, I am still right in the middle of its attenuated history.

The first is Harry Evans' autobiographical "My Paper Chase" from Little, Brown. This famous husband of the dynamic Tina Brown tells us all about how journalism of the old-fashioned kind really worked in the past, from the ground up. I think Harry's story of how he rose up out of the Manchester working class to become the editor of The Times of London may be the best story ever written about "the art" of newspapering.

And don't worry, you youngsters who couldn't care less about the old days. Harry knows that times and things have changed (the Times of London indeed has changed also!) and he realizes that it is his own wife who is helping remake the fourth estate in America.

But nothing beats Harry's first-hand experiences and there are lessons here for anyone trying to create meaningful content and accurate reporting, whether they use a quill pen, a typewriter or a keyboard. Don't miss this fabulous work on how cream rises to the top. It will inspire you.

Here are a couple of Harry Evans quotes, the first from his early hard-won education: "I absorbed the notion of the sanctity of property from John Locke, of free opinion from John Stuart Mill, of free will and the immorality of treating others as a means to one's selfish ends from Immanuel Kant. I recoiled from the mob-rule totalitarianism, as I saw it, of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and found myself at one with Burke again in loathing the mob in the French terror -- my favorite Dickens was 'A Tale of Two Cities' -- while sympathizing with the revolutionaries in America. It was thrilling to read how the abstractions of Enlightenment philosophies became muscle in the American Declaration of Independence."

Here's the second, a peek at Harry's historical and anecdotal sense of humor: "The celebrated critic (John Ruskin) had said that Whistler's 'Nocturne in Black and Gold' was nothing more than a pot of paint flung in the face of the public. Whistler sued him. Asked in cross-examination by Ruskin's attorney how long it had taken him to paint it, Whistler famously replied, 'All my life.' Harry felt this story resembled his career in the newspaper business. ... Add to this Harry's remembrance of his colleague Nick Tomalin's quote: "The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability."

HERE IN New York, on Nov. 10 I will have the chance to laud Harry Evans because he is being honored by the Martha Stewart Center for Living at the Mount Sinai Medical Center gala. I just happen to be the host of this shindig. The names on this invite list are top drawer from Martha Stewart to Richard Gere and Carey Lowell to Charles Koppelman, David Murdock, Marla Schaefer and Steven Weishoff and Steve Schwartz. If you're in New York, call 914-579-1000. We'd love to see you and your money!

MY OTHER great book recommendation is Hannah Pakula's massive work "The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of Modern China."

I have harried my friend Hannah for several years as she finished up her long-awaited biography of the fascinating life of the most famous woman ever to come out of China. Simon & Schuster sends it at last.

I just hope you remember what a talented writer Mrs. Pakula is. She's the widow of the wonderful movie director Alan Pakula who died all too young in a car accident. Hannah is also the author of "An Uncommon Woman." That terrific book told of the life of the Empress Frederick, wife to the Crown Prince of Prussia. This beautiful daughter of Queen Victoria had the misfortune of giving birth to Kaiser Wilhelm and her life seems to have been a living hell from the moment she left England to live in a rising and militaristic Germany.

Hannah also wrote a delightful biography of Queen Marie of Roumania. This is another history I highly recommend. But Soong May-ling, the American educated Madame Chiang, takes all the cakes. There's never been anyone remotely like her and she lived to be over 100, ending her life in New York.

What I have already read in the opening pages is the most concise brief and brilliant history ever of China as it surged from the Manchu dynasties into Chiang's China, fighting for its life against the Japanese during World War II and later turning into Mao's Communist China. The mystery that is China is often hard to grasp but Hannah Pakula makes it seem easy because this is a wonderful read.

And female heroines or leaders or temptresses or harridans are always so much more interesting to us than men. (I'll make an exception here of Lord Byron.)

You'll be hearing more and more about Hannah Pakula's Soong May-ling in the weeks to come!

(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)