Books allow us to communicate our ideas through time and space. We can read books written hundreds or even thousands of years before we were born. Almost like having a conversation with those writers with whom our paths otherwise would never have crossed. And we can write books that will be read by people born hundreds or thousands of years after our deaths so they too can have a conversation with us. We can only talk to so many people during our lives, and books allow us to talk to exponentially more after we’re gone.
Books enrich our knowledge and our creativity by exposing us to new ideas and new information. From this we can improve our world by producing more art, coming up with better ways of helping one another, and understanding different perspectives so we can see each other as friends instead of enemies. The power of books is made evident not just by those who enjoy them, but by those who attempt to destroy them. Tyrannical despots who burn books that contain the keys to the chains that bind people in ignorance and in fear. They try to preserve their power to keep people in the dark by snuffing out the lights that lead to freedom.
But the greater danger than those who would burn books is those who never read them. Those who bind us in chains have no need to keep the keys away from us if we neither know nor care we’re enslaved. The challenge lies in reaching out to the distracted, the busy, the depressed, and the indifferent and showing them that there is another way. But we can’t force it on them. Only they can decide to free themselves from their shackles and get to the light. All we can do is offer them a bit of the light we have seen and hope they will join us. And as long as there are those who read books, hope will never die.