BOOKS FOR THE FORCES

Southland Times, Issue 24005, 21 December 1939, Page 8

BOOKS FOR THE FORCES

List of 1300 Volumes

The men in uniform, like other people, will be reading during the war, and the Society of Authors and the National Book Couqpil have conspired to bring to their attention works that they are likely to appreciate and that will be worth appreciating, writes H.A.G. in The Observer (London). A list of over 1300 volumes has been prepared, most of which are obtainable at a moderate price, and in which every variety of taste should be able to find its satisfaction. Fiction accounts for rather less than half the number, and the field of choice there is a very wide one, including classical writers, the most popular contemporaries, and a liberal allowance of detective stories and thrillers. Variety has been studied in the section of biography, and those who find Lytton Strachey or Siegfried Sassoon too “literary” can solace themselves with the lives of King George V., Marshall Hall, and C. B. Cochran. The catalogue of travel embraces the home country, the Himalayas, and almost everywhere between them, as well as the Poles and the South Seas. Memories of the last war are well represented, and there are several compendious histories. And those are not forgotten who prefer the more severe paths of philosophy, religion, sociology or science.