WHAT SHALL" 1 READ ?

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1933, Page 19

WHAT SHALL" 1 READ ?

Mr.' J. M. Bobertson has achieved an almost Herculean labour in' reducing to shape and order the welter of books that have been written. rounfl. subjects of study. "Courses of Study," revised'and brought up to date after an interval of nearly twenty-five-years, provides an answer to the question, "What books should I read in order to gain some knowledge of Anthropology, or Ethics, or Logic, or the history of India?" and so on. The biblidgraphies offered are not complete, but they are critical. Every book quoted, it is claimed, has been examined by the editor or by some trusted critic or specialist. The aim. and achievement of nearly every book is stated, and its value both in itself and as a link in- the chain of knowledge. For the further benefit of the 3ayman in these matters, books for beginners or unleisured ■ readers are indicated by blacker type, and titles of admittedly standard works by spaced type. Some subjects are of necessity omitted — mathematics and chemistry, for instance, because, it is considered impossible to learn these subjects without oral tuition; and archaeology because it is impossible to deal in a short space with its vast specialist literature. Such omissions are reasonable, and are not a matter for complaint in a most admirable and useful book.