Editorial on Books Recommended for Every Home, June 8, 1924

Another Book List

During the recent observance of Better Homes Week, booksellers and publishers helped along the cause by making up lists of books recommended as a foundation for a home library. One such list is particularly interesting as a contrast to the more familiar five-foot shelf of Dr. Eliot.

In the latter there are found numerous selections from Greek and Roman literature, as well as more modern bits. In the Better Homes list there seems to be an overbalance in favor of modern works. The Bible, a one-volume Shakespeare, a good dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus are about the only old-timers that break into the list. There is a little modern drama, a little recent biography, the “outlines” of art, literature, science and history, an encyclopedia of music, bird and flower guides, some of the current books on psychology, diet and etiquette, Emerson’s essays, one volume of Stevenson’s poetry and one collection of modern poetry, and finally one volume each from Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Kipling, Conrad, Galsworthy, Tarkington and Mark Twain. Hoyle’s Games and an Atlas of the World are also included.

It is an incomplete list, of course, and anyone who loves books and has read anything beyond the required school texts could probably point out omissions and flaws in the choice given. It should be remembered, however, that the list represents only a foundation.

A professor of literature, asking for a reading guide, once said that the best reading guide was one good book. A thoughtful reading of one meaty volume would inevitably lead any real reader to others and, by following the lines of thought set up by the first volume, he would become eventually a well-read man. Given, then 50 foundation books, readers ought in time to delve deep into the treasure store of literature. And some of the more fortunate ones, at least, should even find their way back to the ancient classics and to some of the literature of foreign lands.

From page 4, the editorial page, of the New Bernian, Sunday, June 8, 1924. J.B. Dawson, editor and manager; N.G. Gooding, managing editor.