Last year, to celebrate the centennial of its founding, the New York Public Library mounted a show entitled "Books of the Century." All the librarians-from 4 central research facilities and 82 neighborhood branches-were asked to suggest books published during the past 100 years that had "a significant influence, consequence, or resonance." From more than 1,100 titles recommended, 159 were selected for the exhibition. Now, a year later, the library has issued a book summarizing the contents of the show.

Browsing through this attractively presented slim volume, I was at first enthralled. Each entry is described and justified in an informative one-page essay. Selections include works by literary greats such as Proust, Kafka, Chekhov, and Joyce; influential near-greats such as Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald; and popular mass-audience writers like Zane Grey, Agatha Christie, and Stephen King. But "literature," in the usual sense, is just the beginning. The richly varied list ranges from volumes by Dr. Spock, Emily Post, and Dale Carnegie, to those by Malcom X, Churchill, Hitler, and Mao.