C. S. Lewis commented on a library which divided its books into two categories.
Good Books.
Books.
Famous Five would certainly be books, and so would P. G. Woodehouse. But not Tristram Shandy.
Good Books was more elusive. What quality is it that some books have at once (Ulysses or Finegan's Wake by James Joyce) and others acquire by age?
Difficulty.
This is the reverse of an observation on Homer, by Honor Cargill-Martin:
Who really wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad? Ancient historian answers your questions about Homer
Honor Cargill-Martin | 10 Aug. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk4TTFJJDfo
Once upon a time, Homer would have been "Books" ... or in her words:
So people are literally being raised on this stuff and that means that the texts are very familiar to them. They're not intimidated by them.
CSL intended to get people to stop frowning on popular literature (provided it isn't unchaste or over the top cruel), and Honor Cargill-Martin's observation comes in pretty handy in this context.
/HGL
PS, from the same essay, CSL mentioned that the Classics tend to be either very popular popular literature, or very "urgent" literature of a patriotic or religious type (so "urgent" it becomes popular). The Ghettysburgh adress, the Apologia pro Vita Sua and Mark Twain are examples of the three types. To me at least. As to future Classics, CSL mentioned as possibilities P. G. Woodehouse and The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan./HGL
PPS, given The Thirty-Nine Steps have been filmed in 2008 by BBC, earlier in 1935 by Hitchcock and then again there was a parody on the Hitchcock film written and rewritten in 1996—2005, I think CSL was spot on .../HGL
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