The Place of Books

The Place of Books

Some who encounter this article will need to be amused, intrigued or hooked in the first paragraph. For you, I offer one statement and one question.

Intelligent people read.
What are you reading?

Still here? Perhaps you will find this worth reading.

Our danger is not illiteracy, but alliteracy. We can read, we choose not to. The book has not been replaced, it has been displaced. Sound bytes, streaming-video, TV, radio, headline news, a flood of information sweeps down on us. This flood carries far more debris than gold dust.

The question we find ourselves asking may be, why read? I see two compelling reasons to do three things
- read
- teach reading
- instill a love of reading.

Avid reader and prolific writer, C.S. Lewis on reading.

“Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors. We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented.

[I]n reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.” 1

This quote reminds me of a science fiction story (the author is long forgotten, sorry!) in which people would dream through an entire lifetime, two or three times in a night. On waking from this they carried with them all the skills, wisdom and memories gained in those lives. Vicarious experience and the perspectives of others are best gained through the printed word.

Secondly, I offer a darker reason. Neil Postman wrote an intriguing book entitled Amusing Ourselves to Death . In it he says that while we celebrate the fact that the year 1984 came and went without Big Brother, we are already realizing Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

“Printed material inherently makes assertions. It is almost impossible to write a meaningful sentence which does not make an assertion; and as such, when reading, the reader is being presented with assertions which they are required to agree with, to suspend judgment upon, or to refute. A book is essentially a very long set of assertions which build an argument. The reader has to keep track of the assertions, build up an overall picture, and come to a conclusion of his own, which may or may not match the view of the author.” 2

Postman asserts print as a medium encourages thought and judgment upon arguments. When print is the primary means of communication then culture as a whole has a strong, effective public discourse on important issues. People are not only well informed, but have a strong understanding of the issues of the day.

Reading involves us intellectually. Most video mediums do not. Even a well-made, thought-provoking film does not allow for reflection until we have absorbed the whole of it. Nothing encourages rational inquiry and critical thinking like reading.

Intelligent people read.
What are you reading?

1. C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961/1992)

2. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin Books, 1985)