Reading lists

At the end of chapters or at the end of the last chapter in a monograph, or at the end of articles in periodicals or encyclopedias there are often other publications listed. One of these lists may be works cited which show the authority for the author's exposition which he claims to have consulted. Some of these may be identified as consultations of 'original sources'; others as 'secondary authors'. Another list may be entitled 'recommended reading'. Other lists may be for all the works of the author; all criticism of the author's works; all biographical material on the author's life; and, the truly comprehensive bibliography, the listing of all publications on the subject. This last can be in chronological order and can be selective, omiting the earlier periods, for example. For a list to be a bibliography according to the requirements of that science, it should indicate author, title, publisher or publication, date, place, edition or series and number of volumes. In addition it may indicate pages per volume, size of book if folio or octavo, binding if not sewn, and reproduction method if not printed. If not published it should be indicated to be a dissertation, manuscript, letter, collection etc. Most reading lists are enumerative of the basic information and are not truly descriptively bibliographic. A list or bibliography may also be termed, 'critical', 'analytical' or 'annotated' when each item is followed by a short assessment.