This Engineering and Mathematics major has found "Good Reading" incalculably helpful in furthering the liberal education that I didn't have much time for in college. Highly recommended.

I bought this book as a paperback years ago, lent in out and never got it back. I thought it was out of print and as pleased when I found I could get a recent release in hardbound. It is a great guide to all types of books on mosts subjects from around the world. It first introduced me to Russian literature. If you want a list of books to read to fill in all the gaps of great books you never read, this is the book for you. It is basically of list of recommended reading. The newest edition gives you a list of 100 books to read, books to read after retirement, books to read before you enter college etc. etc. It also gives a brief summary of each book. Supposedly, if one were to read every book listed, one would have the equivalent of several master's degrees. Unless you are an English teacher or major you won't know about many of these books but surprisingly, you will find that you can check off some of the books because your read them in H.S. or college.

Much of the information contained in this book is misleading because it is outdated. Not a good preparation tool for standardized exams, as many of the practices recommended in this book count as mistakes on those exams. Certain things, like using semicolons to separated a list of items that contain commas, are pretty good ideas, but are not part of standard English anymore.

Part of the xx Made Simple series, this volume (c. 1981) needs to be updated and revised.