[Preface to Books and You, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1940:]

I was commissioned to write the three articles which make up this little book by the Saturday Evening Post. They are now reissued to satisfy the large number of persons who have expressed their desire to possess them in a form of somewhat greater permanence and in the hope that they will be useful to many who did not chance to come across them when they appeared in the pages of the magazine. I was limited to four thousand words, and though I think I slightly exceeded this, it must be plain that in that space I could not hope to deal with my subject otherwise than in the most cursory manner. There was in truth in each of my articles matter for a fat volume. My object was to give to such readers as are confused by the great riches which we have inherited from the writers of the past a list of books which anyone who is interested in the things of the spirit could read with pleasure and profit; but since I had to take care to make my list short enough not to dismay, I had to leave out a great many works of high significance.

[...]

This book is necessarily slight, but I trust you, the reader, will not find it superficial. I have written its chapters not as a critic (which indeed I am not) nor even as a writer by profession (for in that capacity my interest in literature would tend to be special) but as the plain man with a proper interest in humanity. The first thing I have asked of a book before I put it on my list was that it should be readable; for I want you to read these books, and readability is something I have a notion the professors of literature and the critics whom they have trained take for granted. But it is not a thing to be taken for granted at all. There are many books important in the history of literature which it is now unnecessary for anybody but the student to read. Few people have the time today to read anything but what immediately concerns them. My claim is that the books I have mentioned in the following pages concern everybody. By readability I do not mean that it should be possible to read the book without attention. The reader must bring something of his own; he must have at least the capacity of interesting himself in human affairs and he must have at least some imagination. I know a number of people who say they cannot read novels, and I have noticed they are apt to suppose that it is because, their minds being busy with important matters, they cannot trouble to occupy themselves with imaginary events; but I think they are deceived; it is either because they are so absorbed in themselves that they cannot take an interest in what happen to others, or because they are so devoid of imagination that they have not the power to enter into the ideas and sympathize with the joys and sorrows of the characters of fiction.

[...]

I repeat here what you will find in my first chapter, that the only thing that signifies to you in a book is what it means to you, and if your opinion is at variance with that of everyone else in the world it is of no consequence. Your opinion is valid for you. In matters of art people, especially, I think, in America, are apt to accept willingly from professors and critics a tyranny which in matters of government they would rebel against. But in these questions there is no right and wrong. The relation between the reader and his book is as free and intimate as that between the mystic and his God. Of all forms of snobbishness the literary is perhaps the most detestable, and there is no excuse for the fool who despises his fellow-man because he does not share his opinion of the value of a certain book. Pretence in literary appreciation is odious, and no one should be ashamed if a book that the best critics think highly of means nothing to him. On the other hand it is better not to speak ill of such books if you have not read them.

In diesem kleinen Büchlein mit gerade mal 169 Seiten sind drei kurze Essays - Englische Literratur, Europäische Literatur und Amerikanische Literatur - zusammengefasst, die unrprünglich für die "Saturday Evening Post" geschrieben wurden. Damit das Buch nicht ganz so dünn ist, ist es mit zahlreichen Abbildungen versehen.
In geradezu schwindelerregenden Tempo werden nacheinander die unterschiedlichsten Bücher und Autoren erwähnt. Zu mehr reicht es nicht, aber das war wohl auch nie die Absicht.
Gut gefallen hat mir aber, das Somerset Maugham immer wieder erwähnt, das man nur nach Lust und Laune lesen soll. Interessant fand ich seine Bemerkungen zu Proust und "Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit". "Ich empfehle Ihnen daher, mit der Lektüre dieses dickleibigen Romans ganz am Anfang zu beginnen, zu lesen, bis Sie sich langweilen, und dann irgendwo weiterlesen." Vielleicht solte ich das mal versuchen. ( )

Ein Buch, dass jeder Leser, aber vor allem jeder Lehrer der Literatur vermittelt, gelesen haben sollte. Ein Buch das vor allem von der Lust des Lesens handelt. Und davon, dass man sich nicht von 'grossen' Autoren blenden, oder einschüchtern lassen soll. ( )

Somerset Maugham schrieb im Auftrag der Saturday Evening Post drei "Aufsätze" (wie er es nennt) über seine bevorzugten Schriftsteller der englischen, europäischen und amerikanischen Literatur. Diese Beiträge sind nun erstmals in deutscher Sprache erschienen und in einem kleinen Band zusammengefasst. Diogenes sei Dank. Kurz, aber im typischen Maugham-Stil äusserst prägnant beschreibt er seine "favourites" (darunter Swift, Melville, Austen, Rousseau, Shakespeare and Goethe), ihre Wirkung auf die Literaturszene im Allgemeinen und ihn als privaten Leser im Speziellen. Ein Büchlein, dass man bequem in der Tasche mitnehmen und immer wieder mit Vergnügen lesen kann. ( )