The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-14

evening to beautiful brown-eyed boy Of
 years-so beautiful and so smart. and
 when I had successfully introduced al
 nother cat and kittens to his attention,
 1 plunged into what I thought a graphic
 and perfectly natural conversation be- tween them, when the youngster cut me short with the observation that he dis liked stories in which animals talked, be- cause they were not true!
 A wise bit of advice comes from well , known literary woman, who says: What ever children read. let us see that 1t is good of it's kind, and thatit gives variety.
 so that no integral want of human nature shall be neglected-so that neither imagi- nation, memory nor reflection shall be starved. Town it is difficult to help them in their choice, when most of us have not learned to choose wisely for ourselves
 Which brings to mind a most engaging and interesting article In ''The New York
 rines Review of Books" of recent date,
 which has to do with Best Books
 1 The writer aptly says:
 .orhat word best Is a hard one to sat- |
 1 isfy when it comes to books. Years ago | Sir John Lubbock started the craze for making selections of Fest Books, and i his choice of 100 titles that he considered worthy of this superlative distinction was 1 a challenge to list-makers the world over l that still seems sonorous enough to bring countless boolxlovers into the lists Of bat l tie. Since Lubbock started the fasnion Dr Eliot has given us his Five-Foot Poolzsbelfs Colonel Roosevelt his Pigsain
 Library, to say nothing Of less popular
 attempts hazarded every now and then
 to indicate the books that every ont
 should read. Indeed. there Is something
 of this idea inherent in such noteworthy
 Qualifications as Everyman's Library oi
 the Modern Library, but in these coliec !, lions. especially In Everyman' the fielt
 covered is far too wide, too comprenen : sive, to be restricted to the Procrusteai
 theory involved in any selection of pes books After all, there never has been : !there probably never will be. list of bes r books made sufficiently sound to receiv luriyersal appreciation. Choice Tn DOCK
 | ;s largely influenced by individual tenn : nerament. and there is also consider n able element of chance that leads each o . us to award the palm of favor to on e hook rather than another. The book. fc n instance. that happens to fall first Int f our childhoods reading is apt to Hnge 2 i,, the memory as a lifetime favorite- y and then there is the book that rat n places in our hands during a perlo h h,essed by some special happiness an y that is bound ever after to stand apal : from all other books for that very reasol
 We inevitably include such books in an - list of favorites. and our choice or phei O is obviously not determined py the : intrinsic value as literature
 $ "Every reader of books Is thus apt d have. some special favorite in hteratur s some time-worn volume that chance hs 's rlacsd in his hands and thet memor 5, covers with a veil of sentimnet. and j. which he is bound to accord first place IT his list of best books. Or, possibly, u [ individual personal favorite takes secor d place in such list. while to the aclfnow IT ledged sc,assic-to the Homer. or Shalz'
 speare, or Milton. or whoever 1t may s that is eligible in this particular gan r of favorites-go the honor of unouestions l. pre- -eminence. With these consideration IS list that would give their just. relati' IT position to each other. the popular ar n the individual fnvoritcs among books D IT comes difficult matter to find. Most
 us. for instance. would placs Dicksn a probably his David copperhsld, well d the front In any list of best novsis,' D d many of these lists would show ses r ltering individual preference for rhac
 cray or Fielding or Jane AustAn or 1T might be some Russian ey French novs