Exactly why the best books are greater than just stories

Exactly why the best books are greater than just stories

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The world today is built upon a practically incomprehensible amount of knowledge that has actually been passed down in books.

It can be tough to imagine what the world would be like today if the large bulk of individuals were not able to read, but for the large bulk of history the huge majority of people could not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the development of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books a lot more available. Naturally, it was still just really the richest and well-read that could read or write, however it made it possible for a whole host of breakthroughs in science, art, and thinking to be spread throughout great distances. Consider what would have happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to simply log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and easily gain access to the totality of human understanding.

It is necessary to remember that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humankind's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. The majority of stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, merely because the vast majority of people could not read, implying that a lot of books were specialised things meant for those few who might comprehend them. After a short boom throughout the classical period of antiquity, the quantity of literate people dropped considerably throughout the Middle Ages. Books ended up being uncommon treasures, with monks fastidiously copying out the surviving classic texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were some of the only members of the populace who could read or write. They were the specialist keepers of knowledge like biology and religion that all of us have access to in the modern world.

With such an abundant history of concepts, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's often simple 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 substantial percentage of all the books that have actually ever been composed (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can easily change the way that you take a look at the world, which has actually held true throughout all of history also. The contemporary world is built upon knowledge that has been handed 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.