there is no end to the making of books. Nor does there seem to be any end to the making of
lists of 'great books'. There have always been more books than anyone could read. And as
they have multiplied through the centuries, more and more blue-ribbon list had to be made.
No matter how long your life, you will, at best, be able to read only a few books of all t
hat have been written, and the few you do read should include the best. You can rejoice in
the fact that the number of such is relatively all. The listing of the best books is as o
ld as reading and writing. The teachers and librarians of ancient Alexandria did it. It is
to be expected that the selections will change will the times. Yet there is a surprising
uniformity in the lists which represent the best choices of any period. In every age, the
list makers include both ancient and modern books in their selections, and they always won
der whether the moderns are up to the great books of the past.What are the signs by which
we may recognize a great book? The six I will mention may not be all there are, but they a
re the ones I've found most useful in explaining my choices over the years. Great books ar
e probably the most widely read. They are not best sellers for a year or two. They are end
uring best sellers. GONE WITH THE WIND has had relatively few readers compared to the play
s of Shakespeare or DON QUIXOTE. It would be reasonable to estimate that Homer's book has
been read by at least 25,000,000 people in the last 3000 years. A great book need not even
be a best seller in its own day. It may take time for it to accumulate its ultimate audie
nce. The astronomer Kepler, whose work on the planetary motions is now a classic, is repor
ted to have said of his book that 'it may wait a century for a reader, as God has waited 6
000 years for an observer'. Great books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written by
specialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they be philosophy or science, or
history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic problems. They are written for men, n
ot professors. To read a textbook for advanced students, you have to read an elementary te
xtbook first. But the great books can be considered elementary in the sense that they trea
t the elements of any subject matter. They are not related to one another as a series of t
extbooks, graded in difficulty or in the technicality of the problems with which they deal
. There is one kind of prior reading, however, which does help you to read a great book, a
nd that is the other great books the author himself read.Great books are always contempora
ry. In contrast, the books we call 'contemporary', because they are currently popular, las
t only for a year or two, or ten at the most. You probably cannot recall the names of many
earlier best sellers, and you probably would not be interested in reading them. But the g
reat books are never outmoded by the movement of thought or the shifting winds of doctrine
and opinion.