No matter how long your life is, you will, at best, be able to read only a few books of all that have been written, and the few you do read should include the best. It is to be expected that the selections will change with the times. Yet there is a surprising uniformity (一致) in the lists which represent the best choices of any period.
What are the signs by which we may recognize a great book? The four I will mention may not be all there are, but they are the ones I’ve found most useful in explaining my choices over the years.
Great books are probably the most widely read. They are not best sellers for a year or two. They are enduring best sellers. GONE WITH THE WIND has had relatively few readers compared to the plays of Shakespeare or DONQUIXOTE. It would be reasonable to estimate that Homer Iliad has been read by at least 25,000,000 people in the last 3000 years.
Great books are popular, not pedantic(卖弄学问的). They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they are philosophy or science, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic problems. They are 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 be considered 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 in difficulty or in the technicality of the problems with which they deal.
Great books are always contemporary, the most readable and instructive.
Great books deal with the persistently unsolved problems of human life. There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Great minds acknowledge mysteries honestly. Wisdom is fortified (加强), not destroyed, by understanding its limitations.
小题1:Which is NOT the standard in the following when evaluating a great book?
A．Although not a best seller for a year or two, it must be the most widely read.
B．A great book can be read without any effort.
C．Great books are never out of date.
D．Great books will not disappoint you if you try to read them well.小题2:According to the author, GONE WITH THE WIND is ______.
A．a best seller
B．disgusted by readers who like Shakespeare
C．read more often than Don Quixote
D．a great book小题3:After reading the passage, we can infer that ______.
A．different periods have different lists of best books because there are many books for people to choose from
B．if you don’t read an elementary textbook, you may have difficulty in understanding an advanced one
C．Homer Iliad must be a best seller when it came out
D．great books often deal with unsolved problems of human life for the writers have confidence in settling them小题4:The best title for this passage is ______.
A．Great Books in Your Life
B．Great Books in Your Specialty
C．How to Find a Great Book?
D．What Is a Great Book?
