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. You can be pleased with the fact that the number of such is relatively small.
It is to be expected that the selections will change over time. Yet there is a surprising uniformity (一致性) 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 wonder 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 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 enduring best sellers. Gone with the Wind has had relatively few readers compared to the plays of Shakespeare or Don Quixote. 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. 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 continuously unsolved problems of human life. There are mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Inquiry not begins with wonder, but usually ends with it also. Great minds acknowledge mysteries only honestly. Wisdom is encouraged, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations.
小题1:Which is not the criterion in the following when considering a great book?
A．Although not a best seller, 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C．Great books are never out of date．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．disliked by readers who like Shakespeare
C．read more often than Don Quixote
D．a great book小题3:In the passage the underlined word “pedantic” means ．
A．showing the feelings, esp., those of kindness, which people are supposed to have
B．serving as practical examples
C．being elementary
D．paying too much attention to details in books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?
