This volume is the second annual cumulation of the Book Review Digest. In the main it includes the books of 1906 that have been commented upon by the best critics. It aims, on the one hand, to record truthfully the scope, character and subject content of books as they appear, and, on the other, to supplement this descriptive information from month to month with excerpts culled from the best current criticism appearing in forty-five English and American magazines which make a prominent feature of book reviews, thus furnishing to the librarian and bookseller a basis for the evaluation of books.

Frequently the best reviews of a book appear during the year following its publication, so in this volume will be found supplementary excerpts relating to books which were entered in the 1905 annual.

It will also be observed that a number of entries include only the descriptive note. These titles look to the year 1907 to furnish the material for appraisal, and excerpts will be published in current numbers of the Digest as fast as reviews appear.

During the first year of the Cumulative Book Review Digest’s existence the question of its being entered as second class matter was pending. It was finally ruled out on account of the cumulative idea. So the second year a new name and a new plan which would meet the postal requirements cut off the recognition of the first volume, and the Book Review Digest was launched as volume one. Now that the post office ruling has been reversed, the present volume may take its place chronologically as volume two of our series.