Read the Best Books First

Of all the uses of time, some surely should be taken for reading⎯time for acquaintance with great thoughts, great minds, great men. But what we read is of incalculable consequence, for books vary in quality and character: some true, some false; some virtuous, some salacious; some up-lifting, some degrading. Indeed, books are likely to be like the men who make them, and we would scarcely recommend exposing ourselves or our children to every man’s mind. In choosing what to eat, we should be discriminating lest the substance be unfit for food.

“You require judgment in the selectors of books,” said Carlyle, “real insight into what is for the advantage of human souls, the exclusion of all kinds of clap-trap books which merely excite the astonishment of foolish people . . .” “We talk of food for the mind, as of food for the body,” wrote John Ruskin, “now a good book contains such food inexhaustible . . . [but] no book is worth anything which is not worth much . . . ” “Books are the best of things, well used,” said Emerson. “”bused [they are] among the worst.” “We must be careful what we read,” said John Lubbock, “and not, like the sailors of Ulysses, take bags of wind for sacks of treasures, . . .”

“The very abundance of books in our days⎯a stupefying and terrifying abundance,” wrote James Bryce, “has made it more important to know how to choose . . . The first piece of advice I will venture to give you is this: Read only the best books . . . Let not an hour . . . be wasted on third-rate or second-rate stuff if first-rate stuff can be had.”

It comes down essentially to this: that besides being a depository of knowledge, discovery, and experience of the world, books are also a reflection of men’s minds. They reflect the false as well as the true, the trivial as well as the profound, the degrading as well as the uplifting. Merely because something is put into print does not mean it is worth reading or can be believed. And as surely as men shall be held accountable for their acts and utterances, just so surely shall they be accountable for what they put into print.

Thus reading should always be selective and “out of the best books.” “Read the best books first,” said Thoreau, “or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”