In Praise of Reader's Digest Condensed Books

When we were in Big Bear recently we stopped at a book store that had used books for sale. There was a whole shelf of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. They brought back some great memories for me. When the family visited the grandparents in Ft. Lauderdale each summer I would read some of the RDCB that they had. When I was younger I pretty much only looked at the illustrations but as I grew older I read many of the books in each volume. I noticed that that the book store had some of the same volumes from the late 50s to the mid 60s that I remember my grandparents having and that prompted me to track down some of the unabridged books at the local library for another read. I was surprised to learn that I had read a chapter from a William Faulkner novel (The Reivers), that another book condensed by Reader's Digest was only half of the original novel, and that yet another left out a key portion of the narrative but still managed to have the story make sense. Re-reading the book 'The Rainbow and the Rose' by Nevil Shute has now lead me to 'On the Beach' and 'A Town Like Alice'. Another book read in the condensed version 'This is Google' led me to the original 'This is Google, or the Education of a Father' a wonderful story of a boy growing up as told from the vantage point of the father. This book, written in 1954 is a goldmine of postwar 'modern' parenting and the mileposts of the culture of the time with much cigarette smoking and martini sipping.

I read today that Reader's Digest corporation is filing for chapter 11. The article stated that in this day of the Internet the compilation of articles of interest for readers is being usurped by search engines and the Drudge report. Ultimately I image that the Reader's Digest will pass into history along with their condensed books and the world will be a slightly sadder place for that.