Great Books

http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110009472

What are libraries for? Are they cultural storehouses that contain the best that has been thought and said? Or are they more like actual stores, responding to whatever fickle taste or Mitch Albom tearjerker is all the rage at this very moment?

If the answer is the latter, then why must we have government-run libraries at all? There’s a fine line between an institution that aims to edify the public and one that merely uses tax dollars to subsidize the recreational habits of bookworms.

Fairfax County may think that condemning a few dusty old tomes allows it to keep up with the times. But perhaps it’s inadvertently highlighting the fact that libraries themselves are becoming outmoded.

There was a time when virtually every library was a cultural repository holding priceless volumes. Imagine how much richer our historical and literary record would be if a single library full of unique volumes–the fabled Royal Library of Alexandria, in Egypt–had survived to the present day.

Fairfax County is purging books that aren’t checked out in 24 months. So if you live in Fairfax, do yourself and Western Culture a favor, go to your library, and check out some volumes. Aristotle, Plato, Malory. Homer. The Latin poets. St. Augustine and the medieval divines. Don’t forget Shakespeare or Donne, or the great modern novelists, poets, playwrights, and philosophers.

We live in an age that scorns the things of the past. Let us at least preserve these works and perhaps save the next generation from cultural oblivion.

What books would you recommend for beginning a private library of the classics?