Good Reading: A Guide for Serious Readers, Revised Edition

by J. Sherwood Weber, Arthur Waldern, Zeiger

Historical Periods-from ancient Greece to the 18th century; Regional and American Minority Cultures - from Middle Eastern to Chicano-Hispanic literature; Literary Types - from the novel and short story to language and communications; Humanities and Social Sciences - from the fine and performing arts to psychology, economic and women's and Sciences - from biology to mathematics.

Genres: Reference, Books About Books, Literature

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Helen Geng]

From Hell’s Kitchen Free Store

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I seem to remember I had a copy of an older edition of this book, which I loved, trusted, and treasured as an guidebook to the great, enduring works of all history. But at some point I must have discarded it in favor of a newly-purchased, 1978 edition. (yes, I'm that old)

When I look at the 1978 edition now, I see that it's biased toward recently published works -- books in the 1969-1977 timeframe. In some categories, a skim of the publish dates of the significant books looks like this: 1976, 75, 74, 72, 72, 72. Here's another page: 1975, 74, 76, 67.

From the introduction, this bias appears to have been deliberate. But I think it went too far. If I were to run out and buy the latest edition now, how many of these books will no longer be included? And how many will be replaced with the latest "trendy" pop culture book, unlikely to endure?