Why a book?

When I was a child, my favorite sanctuary in our entire house was my father’s library. That was where Beowulf and I became acquainted. Where Aesop’s Fables would serve wisdom in the briefest of word counts. In my father’s library, the Book of Knowledge was placed on a shelf well within my reach.

And then there was the Readers’ Digest. With its familiar font as well as physical and literary “squareness”, it was Oprah on print when she wasn’t even a star. These were the learning tools that held me steady as I grew. Love for books when instilled in childhood is like a birthmark that never leaves. It never harms anyone. It just is.

Unfortunately, not all families have home libraries anymore nor do public schools have decent libraries for the children. Technology has driven books and children apart. In lieu of Readers’ Digest, they have turned to Ragnarok. Instead of learning values from Aesop’s animal characters, they enter mysterious hallways and dungeons in digital role-plays.

Times are different. Why a book when the gas tank is empty? Why a book when the children need school supplies? Why a book when there is Internet anyway? Why a book when you can just text me what you know and very few people bother to ask what the other one knows anyway?

Why a book? A library is a school with many classrooms. A book is a classroom with an audience of one. The author is a teacher with stories to tell and lessons to share.

When the “teacher” is good or wise or funny or dark, a transformation happens, and the student leaves the classroom with images that linger and words ringing in his or her ears. When one reads a non-fiction book, stories are told about the real world that drives the reader to hit the pause button in his own life – just to take all the information in.

In her book, “What I Saw At The Revolution,” my favorite writer Peggy Noonan wrote:

“Like most baby boomers, I live this paradox: Nothing really memorable happened in my childhood, yet I think about it all the time. No blitz, no holocaust, no depression, just us and the childhoods we cannot leave behind. We’ll be watching TV, and a black-and-white movie from the thirties will come on with an old lush score, and there will be a shot of a woman’s hand opening a picture album with the credits on each page – and suddenly we are overwhelmed. Such longing, such nostalgia and remorse, such sadness about … something or other. We surrender to reverie and tumble back in time.”

Why a book? A good writer can catch a moment and freeze it in words that describe the soundtrack of our lives. If you have young children – read to them. Let them discover the heroes that never fade inside the pages of a book. I assure you that discovery is worth the expense of buying a really good book. (Panorama Magazine, July 6)