The reason why the best books are more than simply stories

The reason why the best books are more than simply stories

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Books, and the quantity of people who could read them, have actually been definitely essential to human advancement over the centuries.

It's important to bear in mind that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humankind's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. Many stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, simply since the vast bulk of individuals could not read, suggesting that many books were specialised things meant for those few who might comprehend them. After a short boom throughout the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped dramatically throughout the Middle Ages. Books ended up being rare treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the enduring classic texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were a few of the only members of the populace who were able to read or write. They were the professional keepers of knowledge like biology and religious beliefs that all of us have access to in the modern world.

With such a rich history of concepts, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how exceptionally lucky 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 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, which has been true throughout all of history also. The modern-day world is built on 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.

It can be hard to picture what the world would resemble today if the huge bulk of people were not able to read, but for the large bulk of history the huge bulk of individuals could not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the innovation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books far more available. Of course, it was still only really the richest and well-educated that could read or write, however it made it possible for an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread across great distances. Consider what would have happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been distributed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to merely log onto a site like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly gain access to the totality of human understanding.