Avoid trash, but do not buy literature which will not be read simply because it is standard or classic.

Remember that the public library is a popular institution in every sense of the word; that it has become possible only by the approval of the majority of the population, and that the majority of the population is confined in its turn to a majority of people of the most commonplace kind.
Do not pander to any sect, creed, or partisan taste.

Buy largely books costing from 50 cents to $2, found in so many of the series now published.

These are fresh, up-to-date, written for the most part by competent men, and are reliable.

They are not dull, because no one can afford to be dull in a 12mo volume.