Thank you very much. I looked at those 2 articles in Wikipedia and that is just what I am looking for. It is a shame the books themse4lves aren't numbered so that I can easily see which ones I have and which ones to look for.
Primarily I am trying to find out how to look for a book or author amongst these volumes. I can't organize them by author, or topic/genre.But I like the wide range they encompass allowing me to quickly acquaint myself with authors I would not otherwise read. I have about 130 and often see them in 2nd hand shops, then I have no idea which ones I already have.
I read many of these condensed books as a kid while spending summers with my grandparents. I'm sure they had a lot to do with developing a wide interest in various types of books and many different authors. Reading this string of messages, I was bothered because I remember these books always having volume numbers and years marked on them. Dug a little and found two volumes here. Sure enough, if you remove the dust jacket, at the bottom of the spine is year and volume number (1-4) for that year. Further, on the reverse of the title page below all the copyright information there is a sequential volume number--in this case mine is FIRST EDITION: Volume 230. But wait! Just looked on the title page and at the bottom it also shows the year and volume.
If you go to www.librarything.com/series/Reader's+Digest+Condensed+Books and then click on the individual volume number, it will list the authors and titles in that volume.