7 JANUARY 1955, Page 18

TOO MANY BOOKS The news, just published in the Bookseller,

that the number of titles,published in Britain in 1954 was the highest ever, will be, as the Bookseller itself commented, received with mixed feelings. Those most closely concerned, including booksellers and professional authors, are likely to feel that 13,342 new titles (i.e., a total of 19,1.88 less 5,846 reprints) are a great deal too many. Nor can the reading public really feel happy abotit what appear to be twentieth and thirtieth repetitions of the same escape story, the painfully familiar African safari, the endless pot-boiling biographies, and the thousands of wet little novels. 'Fewer and better books' should be the demand of the public to the publishers.