A compilation that exploded onto the market just as commonplace books fell from favour; four hundred pages of the poet's selection of readings that have meant the most to him, which he called 'a sort of autobiography'; one hundred and seventy-three entries and personal commentaries arranged in alphabetical order; Auden in the round with plenty of surprises from the frivolity of 'letting rip a fart' to the seriousness of Homer and Tolkien; published shortly before the poet left New York to return to England.
