Reasons why the best books are more than simply stories

Reasons why the best books are more than simply stories

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Books, and the amount of individuals who might read them, have been absolutely vital to human development over the centuries.

With such an abundant history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes easy to forget how exceptionally fortunate we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a big proportion of all the books that have ever been composed (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can easily change the manner in which you take a look at the world, and that has held true throughout all of history also. The contemporary world is built upon understanding that has actually been passed down through books, whether that is ideology, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had actually not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.

It can be hard to envision what the world would resemble today if the large majority of individuals were not able to read, but for the vast bulk of history the large majority of individuals might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the development of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books much more accessible. Naturally, it was still only really the wealthiest and well-educated that could read or write, however it made it possible for a whole host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have actually been distributed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation of books, and we are lucky to be able to just log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly access the totality of human understanding.

It is very important to keep in mind that, although a lot of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. The majority of stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, simply since the vast bulk of people might not read, implying that the majority of books were specialised things meant for those few who could comprehend them. After a short boom throughout the classical age of antiquity, the quantity of literate individuals dropped dramatically throughout the Middle Ages. Books became unusual treasures, with monks painstakingly copying out the enduring classic texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were some of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the expert keepers of understanding like biology and religious beliefs that all of us have access to in the modern world.