[1] There is no end to the making of books. Nor does there seem to be anyend to the making of lists of “great books". There have always been more booksthan anyone could read. And as they have multiplied through the centuries, moreand more blue ribbon lists have had to be made.
[2]"No matter how long your life, you will, at best, be able toread only a few books of all that have been written, and the few you do readshould include the best. You can rejoice in the fact that the number of such isrelatively small.
[3] The listing of the best books is as old as reading and writing. Theteachers and librarians of ancient Alexandria did it. Quintilian did it forRoman education, selecting, as he said, both ancient and modern classics. Inthe Renaissance, such leaders of the revival of learning as Montaigne andErasmus made lists of the books they read.
[4] It is to be expected that the selections will change with the times.Yet there is a surprising uniformity in the lists which represent the bestchoices of any period. In every age, the list makers include both ancient andmodern books in their selections, and they always wonder whether the modernsare up to the great books of the past.
[5] What are the signs by which we may recognize a great book? The sixI will mention may not be all there are, but they are the ones I've found mostuseful in explaining my choices over the years.
[6] Great books are probably the most widely read. They are not bestsellers for a year or two. They are enduring best sellers. Gone with the Wind has had relatively few readers compared to the playsof Shakespeare or Don Quixote. Itwould be reasonable to estimate that Homer's Iliad has been read by at least 25,000,000people in the last 3000years.
[7] A great book need not even be a best seller in its own day. It maytake time for it to accumulate its ultimate audience. The astronomer Kepler, whosework on the planetary motions is now a classic, is reported to have said of hisbook that: “it may wait a century for a reader, as God has waited 6000 yearsfor an observer.”
[8] Great books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written byspecialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they be philosophy orscience, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic problems. Theyare written for men, not professors. To read a textbook for advanced students,you have to read an elementary textbook first. But the great books can beconsidered elementary in the sense that they treat the elements of any subject matter.They are not related to one another as a series of textbooks, graded indifficulty or in the technicality of the problems with which they deal.
[9] There is one kind of prior reading, however, which does help you toread a great book, and that is the other great books the author himself read.Let me illustrate this point by taking Euclid's Elements of Geometry and Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Euclid requires noprior study of mathematics. His book is generally an introduction to geometry,and to basic arithmetic as well. The same cannot be said for Newton, because Newtonuses mathematics in the solution of physical problems. His style shows howdeeply he was influenced by Euclid's treatment of ration and proportions. Hisbook is, therefore, not readily intelligible, even to scientists, unless Euclidhas been read before.
[10] I am not saying that great scientific books can be read withouteffort. I am saying that if they are read in an historical order, the effort isrewarded. Just as Euclid illuminates Newton and Galileo, so they in turn helpto make Einstein intelligible. The point applies to philosophical books aswell.
[11] Great books are always contemporary. In contrast, the books we call“contemporary”, because they are currently popular, last only for a year ortwo, or ten at the most. You probably cannot recall the names of many earlierbest sellers, and you probably would not be interested in reading them. But thegreat books are never outmoded by the movement of thought or the shifting windsof doctrine and opinion.
[12] People regard the “classics” as the great has-beens, the greatbooks of other times. “Our times are different," they say. On thecontrary, the great books are not dusty remains for scholars to investigate,they are, rather, the most potent civilizing forces in the world today.
[13] The fundamental human problems remain the same in all ages. Anyonewho reads the speeches of Demosthenes and the letters of Cicero, or the essaysof Bacon and Montaigne, will find how constant is the preoccupation of men withhappiness and justice, with virtue and truth and even with stability and changeitself. We may accelerate the motions of life, but we cannot seem to change theroutes that are available to its goals.
[14] Great books are the most readable. They will not let you down ifyou try to read them well. They have more ideas per page than most books havein their entirety. That is why you can read a great book over and over againand never exhaust its contents.
[15] They can be read at many different levels of understanding, aswell as with a great diversity of interpretations. Obvious examples are Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe and the Odyssey.Children can read them with enjoyment, but fail to find the rein all the beautyand significance which delight an adult mind.
[16] Great books are the most instructive. This follows from the factthat they are original communications; they contain what cannot be found inother books. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with what they say, theseare the primary teachers of mankind; they have made the basic contributions tohuman thought.
[17] It is almost unnecessary to add that the great books are the mostinfluential books. In the tradition of learning, they have been most discussedby readers who have also been writers. These are the books about which thereare many other books — countless and, for the most part, forgotten.
[18] Great books deal with the persistently unsolved problems of humanlife. There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of humanknowing and thinking. Inquiry not only begins with wonder, but usually endswith it also. Great minds acknowledge mysteries honestly. Wisdom is fortified, notdestroyed, by understanding its limitations.
[19] It is our privilege, as readers, to belong to the larger brotherhoodof man which recognizes no national boundaries. I do not know how to escapefrom the strait-jacket of political nationalism. I do know how we becomefriends of the human spirit in all its manifestations, regardless of time andplace. It is by reading the great books.
